Malaysia Can Become Leading Rare Earth Industry Player

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has both the resources and technology to become a leading rare earth industry player. A conference here was told that the country has rich rare earth elements in xenotime, a heavy rare earth phosphate mineral with high content of yttrium which is really in demand right now. It was said that Malaysia used to export its tin to be processed elsewhere thus losing much of its revenue to others. Now, having its own technology, Malaysia is able to process its own resources in the country. The potential of xenotime has been known for long, and yttrium has been used in the most effective of superconductors. Dr Meor Yusoff Meor Sulaiman, Senior Researcher at the Malaysian Nuclear Agency, said the processed rare earth can be turned into oxide or metal high tech and green tech products. "Xenotime is a local mineral that has very high content of yttrium. It has 60 per cent of yttrium and more than eight per cent of dysprosium. These two elements are the future strategic elements." He was speaking at the International Symposium on Rare Earths organised by Academy of Sciences Malaysia and the National Professors' Council. The symposium gave Malaysians a world view of the current rare earths situation especially the upstream mining and processing sectors. The current global demand for rare earth products provides myriad business opportunities to Malaysia in developing its own downstream industry. -- BERNAMA