Rare Earth

Legalizing Rare Earth Industry in Malaysia Rare earth minerals, to be defined in a simple way, are 17 elements located on the periodic table and essential to the production of high-tech gadgets such as smart-phones, flat screen televisions, catalytic converters, low-energy light bulbs, hybrid cars, wind turbines, and laser devices just to name a few. Lynas, an Australia rare earth company, was the first to bring rare earth production into the industrial estate of Gebang near Kuantan, east coast of
Peninsular Malaysia. Since the coming in of rare earth plant into Malaysia, there were so many protests against it. Rare earth minerals aren’t really that rare. Deposits of most of the elements can be found all across the globe including the continental North America.
Since these minerals are so common throughout the world, why U.S. Military have to pay
China for imports to build missiles and radars? It is because mining for rare earth brings a huge negative impact towards environment and will also create radioactive wastage as a byproduct. Although the effects from rare earth plant in Malaysia are yet to be seen, it doesn’t means that it wouldn’t become a real nightmare for us who are staying in and love
Malaysia. Research before starting the operation of the company was just too simple, and many of the problems were neither solved nor mentioned, such as where to place and how to manage all the wastages produced as all of them contain radioactive substances, not just by saying that they will export all of the wastage out of Malaysia. Overall saying, rare earth minerals are important substances that can make our life more comfortable but yet, Malaysia is just not really ready for it. Many says that using and producing of rare earth material helps to reduce green house gas emissions (taken from Lynas Corporation Ltd http://www.lynascorp.com) as these materials are used in producing environment friendly products such as hybrid cars,