JANUARY 12 — The recent report on the Kedah state government inking a memorandum of understanding with Menteri Besar Incorporated with Jangka Bakat Mineral Sdn Bhd and Chinese technical partner Xiamen Tungsten Co Ltd to tap into RM60 billion worth of rare earth elements , remains a concern and a lack of comprehensive strategic planning our part.
In the military, REEs are used in vital military assets, particularly precision-guided weapons, communication equipment, Global Positioning System equipment, and other defence electronics. Rare earth is increasingly being used as another vital and critical resource factor in a greater global geopolitical competition especially in enhancing military technology and capacity and in technological supremacy, which includes technology and space race.
Beijing’s long game sees Malaysia as a convenient factor, and wants to maintain its technological and critical resources advantage against the intense competition with the US and the West, and will want to slow and halt the West’s presence in this field in this part of the world. It fuels the need to resist the pressure from the US and the West amidst heightened rivalry and geopolitical competition, and Beijing’s increasing strategic move in Malaysia in this area serves as a form of retaliating against the widespread and comprehensive Western blockade and sanctions on its critical technology particularly the chips embargo.
Rare earth can be used as a blackmailing tool to dictate our options, where Beijing can capitalize on our spiralling debt commitment to it, from ECRL to other BRI projects. It leveraged that monopoly on rare earths supply to subsequently dominate all of the value-adding steps, from mine through to metal through to magnet.
While China dominates production as a whole, its grip is greatest on the heavy rare earths. It’s a relatively small, niche segment of demand overall, but very strategically important to almost any modern nation, according to this research group. In Kedah, RM60 billion worth of rare earth assets are ripe for extraction, it needs careful assessment and planning.
We must be wise to play our cards well, and not fully rely on Chinese technological capacity and expertise to mine the rare earth just for the sake of quick and easy returns. The future of mining, which is safer, resilient and sustainable and essentially more productive, has been proposed by some Western companies.
Well thought of
Nnt Kedah akan jadi macam Pahang zaman bauksit dulu kan. Bahagia lah rakyat Kedah ye
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