PERAK Menteri Besar Saarani Mohamad has slammed PAS for accusing the state of violating the ban on the export of non-radioactive rare earth elements (NR-REE).

He described PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man’s statement as superficial and lacking research.

“He (Tuan Ibrahim) should know that the NR-REE mining pilot project was started on 87.4ha of land in Mukim (sub-district) Kenering, Hulu Perak after obtaining legal approval from technical agencies and permission to operate from the state authorities.

“For a pilot project, if we want to know the market value of NR-REE, we have to export because our country does not have a factory to process it, and this was done before the export ban was issued in September,” he said.

Saarani said this at the opening ceremony for the Kinta Valley Geopark 5th Anniversary and the launch of the International Geopark Run 2024 @ Ipoh Low Carbon Day at Dataran Bandaraya Ipoh, today.

The Raja Muda of Perak Raja Jaafar Raja Muda Musa launched the programme, which was also attended by the Raja Dihilir Perak Raja Iskandar Dzurkarnain Sultan Idris Shah.

Saarani added that the state government, during a meeting with the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry, also requested that Perak be given a moratorium on the sale of NR-REE.

“We asked to be given an exemption to export and sell NR-REE until the ministry makes a decision on regulations for everything related to NR-REE throughout the country. Although other states also have NR-REE but Perak is the initiator, so he (Tuan Ibrahim) does not have to be unduly concerned about this matter.

“We will continue to explore until there are regulations that disallow us to sell. In fact, we have made a projection that until the end of this year, Perak will generate around RM21 million in royalties,” he said.

He said on a visit to Nanning, China, he saw for himself how NR-REE is processed to produce 15 other elements, calling it a worthwhile trip.

Yesterday, Tuan Ibrahim reportedly questioned the actions of the Perak government which exported NR-REE when the government prohibited any export related to the high-value raw material resource. – Bernama, October 22, 2023.