Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has announced that it will continue to ban the export of raw rare earth materials even after signing a critical minerals trade deal with the United States. The country’s trade minister, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, told Parliament that Malaysia is determined to move beyond being merely a supplier of cheap raw resources and aims instead to build a domestic industry for processing and refining rare earths.

The minister said the government wants foreign investment to help Malaysia develop its downstream capabilities and create more value within the country. “We do not want to be a nation that only digs and ships out raw materials like in the past,” he said.

Malaysia is believed to have more than 16 million metric tons of rare earth deposits, making it one of the largest hol

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