KUANTAN: The Pahang government refutes the existence of illegal rare earth oxide mining activities in the Lipis forest reserve as claimed by Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday (March 12).
Calling Nik Nazmi's statement inaccurate, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail said:
"There were attempts to extract the mineral. Surveillance conducted by the Pahang enforcement unit (UPNP) elite team on March 20 last year led them to the discovery of a site which could be turned into a rare earth mining area based on the equipment recovered.
"The Pahang Minerals and Geoscience Department had conducted checks at the respective site on March 23 and investigations revealed the lab equipment, and tools found in the area were for mining rare earth elements.
"However, no production was carried out and all the equipment were seized by the authorities," he said in a statement today (March 13).
Yesterday (March 12), Nik Nazmi, when responding to a supplementary question by Lee Chuan How (Pakatan Harapan-Ipoh Timur) on reports claiming that 19,081 tonnes of rare earth oxide from Malaysia were imported by China, said some 16,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide were mined illegally in five states in Malaysia before being sent to China.
He said the operations were in forest reserves in Sik in Kedah, Lipis in Pahang and Pengkalan Hulu and Kuala Kangsar in Perak, and two others located on private land in Negri Sembilan.
Wan Rosdy said following the discovery of the site in Lipis last year, UPNP with the police and west Pahang zone forestry department's enforcement team had conducted regular patrols in the western part of the state between May 3 last year and Feb 15 this year, and found zero rare earth mining operations.
"So, I hope the piece of information can be corrected because the statement made yesterday has tarnished the good name of Pahang.
Furthermore, the state has been carrying out strict enforcement to curb land encroachment activities including illegal mining over the past five years," he said.
Wan Rosdy said since UPNP was established on Oct 9, 2019, a total of 137 illegal state land occupation cases had been solved with 129 cases being compounded and eight others handed sentences after being taken to court.
