Perak rare earth exploration not the same as Lynas - Harapan MP

Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye said today the memorandum of understanding signed between the Perak government and a China firm to explore rare earth minerals in the state is a different situation compared to Lynas' rare earths processing plant in Pahang.

"I think Lynas and our rare earths (exploration) is different. Lynas is where we import so-called rare earths, we are importing radiation whereas if we are mining our own domestic soil, the radiation is already there.

"The most important thing is when they extract the rare earths out of whatever we have, we got to make sure there is proper control and disposal of the radiation so that it doesn't contaminate the environment.

"So at the end of the day, we got to look at the environment," he told Malaysiakini at the Parliament lobby today.

Lee was asked if the Perak government's decision was contrary to Pakatan Harapan's struggle as the coalition had aggressively campaigned against Lynas' plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.

However, Lee, who is also the deputy health minister, said he will need to look at the details before deciding on his position with regard to rare earths exploration in Perak.

"How much development will it bring? We have also got to look to what extent the environmental aspect is not compromised," he said.

Meanwhile, the opposition's Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman criticised Harapan for even considering the matter in view of the controversy surrounding Lynas.

"They are not listening to the rakyat. They know the rakyat is already making a lot of noise about Lynas in Pahang, still they want to do it? This time they want to do it in Perak.

"They don't care what people think or feel," the Umno lawmaker told Malaysiakini at the Parliament lobby.

Tajuddin claimed that the Harapan-led Perak government has struggled to bring in investments and was now turning to projects that they were previously against.

"In Perak, there is a lot of potentials for them to come up with new projects to develop the economy, like agriculture and tourism. They don't have to depend on a stupid project," he said.

The Harapan government has faced brickbats over its refusal to close down the Lynas plant.

While the facility's closure was not included in Harapan's manifesto, several of its key leaders had during ceramah pledged to shut down the plant if the coalition captured Putrajaya which it did in May last year.

The Harapan government has instead set a four-year time frame for Lynas to build a new facility in Australia where radioactive waste from its rare earths mined at Mount Weld in Western Australia will first be removed before being sent to Malaysia for further processing.

Meanwhile, for existing radioactive waste as well as those that will be produced during the interim period, Lynas is required to build a permanent disposal facility to store them.

Despite this controversy, the Water, Land and Natural Resouces Ministry on Nov 16 announced that it had witnessed the signing of a memorandum between the Perak government's Menteri Besar Incorporated and Chinalco GXNF Rare Earth Development Co Ltd to "systematically explore rare earth elements" in Perak.

Perak previously had a bitter experience with rare earths when the Asian Rare Earth plant at Bukit Merah leaked high levels of radiation before it was eventually shut down in 1992.

Local residents blamed the plant for birth defects and eight cases of leukaemia within five years when there were none in the preceding years.

 - Mkini