According to Mining Weekly citing a Reuters report, Malaysia's trade minister stated on Wednesday that despite signing a critical minerals agreement with the US this week, the country will continue to ban the export of rare earth raw materials to protect domestic resources.
Tengku Zafrul Aziz denied accusations in Parliament that Malaysia allowed the export of critical minerals and rare earths to the US in pursuit of short-term interests or strategic goals.
"We no longer just mine and export cheap raw materials as we did in the past," Tengku Aziz said. Instead, he emphasized that Malaysia will encourage foreign investment and the introduction of rare earth mining and smelting technology.
"Our policy is not to stop trade forever," he said. "Our policy is to prevent the export of cheap, unprocessed raw materials in order to bring more benefits to Malaysia."
The Malaysian government expects the country's rare earth reserves to be approximately 16.1 million mt, but lacks the technology for mining and processing. Rare earth materials are crucial for high-tech manufacturing, including EVs, semiconductors, and missiles.
On the 26th, during his visit to Kuala Lumpur, Trump signed agreements with Malaysia and Thailand respectively, aiming to diversify the critical minerals supply chain.
According to a joint statement by the US and Malaysia, this Southeast Asian country agreed not to prohibit or restrict the export of critical minerals or rare earth elements to the US.
