Foreign media news on September 11, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (Anwar Ibrahim) said on Monday that Malaysia will develop a policy to ban the export of rare earth raw materials to avoid mining and resource loss, thus becoming the latest country to restrict the export of key minerals.

Malaysia has only a fraction of the world's rare earth reserves, estimated at 30,000 tonnes, according to the United States Geological Survey (United States Geological Survey) 2019. China is the largest source of rare earths, with reserves estimated at 44 million tonnes.

The rare earth industry is expected to contribute 9.5 billion ringgit (US$2 billion) to Malaysia's gross domestic product (gdp) by 2025 and create nearly 7,000 jobs, Anwar said in parliament.

He said:- "A detailed source map of rare earth elements and an integrated business model combining upstream, midstream and downstream industries will be developed to sustain our rare earth value chain."

Malaysia's ban could affect rare earth exports to China. Malaysia imported about 8 per cent of China's total rare earths between January and July this year, according to Chinese customs data.

"The legislation could have some negative impact on potential investments in Malaysia by Chinese companies, which have been looking to other Asian countries to source unprocessed or blended rare-earth compounds as feedstock for (rare-earth) processing facilities in southern China," Merriman said.

[Source - CKN].