PUTRAJAYA: A policy is being drafted to tackle the illegal mining of rare earth elements, says the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry.
“This is already done at the federal level. We will form a policy encompassing aspects from downstream to upstream to handle this,” said its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.
“We do not want rare earth elements to be extracted in their raw form as this doesn’t add any value.
“Rare earth elements are in very high demand globally due to energy transition efforts,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
He said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof has also tasked the ministry with ensuring rare earth elements are harvested in a sustainable manner.
“We need to balance between the need for natural resources and the environment,” he added.
Nik Nazmi was commenting on reports that Kedah police arrested nine individuals, including four Myanmar, for allegedly smuggling immigrants to be exploited in the illegal mining of rare earth elements in the Bukit Enggang Forest Reserve in Sik.
Separately, he said he would be holding a meeting with the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) soon to follow through on the commission’s findings on the faulty barrage at Sungai Muda.
“I’ve already received a briefing from SPAN and met with its team.
“Its report was very thorough with interesting proposals, and we will be following through on this.
“Water supply is very critical and we need to address it in a holistic manner,” he added.
On Monday, SPAN said the faulty barrage gate opening that caused water to flow out of Sungai Muda in May happened “outside working hours”.
It said staff there only work from 8.30am to 4.30pm, with days off on Fridays and Saturdays during the dry season, while round-the-clock surveillance is only done during rainy or flood seasons.
The incident where the faulty barrage gate opened occurred at 10pm on May 13, a Saturday.
By sunrise on May 14, water levels at Sungai Muda had fallen from their normal 3m to 0.67m, affecting some 678,983 consumers in Penang and Kedah.
