THE Kedah government is expected to generate revenues from rare earth element (REE) mining in Sik with a royalty rate of 15% by the middle of next year.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor described REE as a new economic resource bestowed by Allah to the people of Kedah.
He said the move to collect royalty comes after approval was given in August last year to the state to extract the minerals.
He noted that the federal government made the decision to make Kedah the second state to engage in REE mining project after Perak.
“To ensure that this new revenue benefits the people, the Kedah land administration plans to collect revenue from state revenue sources next year onwards,” he said.
“The approval of REE exploration is from the federal government. I would like to thank the federal government for choosing Kedah as a pilot project for REE exploration to study the impact (it would have) on the status of the forests,” he said.
Sanusi said this when presenting the Kedah Budget 2024 at the 15th Kedah State Assembly at Wisma Darul Aman today.
He added that the selection of Kedah for the pilot project will put the state in a position to carry out REE mining, with an estimate of 250,000 metric tonnes from Kedah’s total REE reserves of 1,196 million metric tonnes.
“This figure is derived from new explorations for REE extraction in the next ten years,” he said.
“I hope it brings a big impact to Kedah’s economy and hopefully it is managed efficiently, with trustworthiness and fairness.” – The Vibes, November 26, 2023.
