GEORGE TOWN: Environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), has expressed concern that the Perak government is undertaking the exploration of rare earth minerals in the state.
Its president, Meenakshi Raman, said the move could endanger the lives of residents.
She said the state was already home to a permanent radioactive waste facility in the Kledang Range that contained dangerous and harmful thorium and uranium wastes inherited from the notorious Asian Rare-Earth (ARE) plant in Bukit Merah, Ipoh, from the mid-1980s to 1990s.
Meenakshi said the radioactive wastes would remain for billions of years and were already posing high risks to the people.
“It is most shocking that the Perak state government as well as the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry (KATS) have not learnt the tragic lessons of the ARE plant that resulted in serious radioactive poisoning in the Bukit Merah community.
“There have been reports of high incidences of deaths among children who suffered from leukaemia and cancer, children with elevated levels of lead in their blood, and above normal rates of miscarriages among pregnant women.
“Just adding the word ‘sustainable’ to rare earth mining and processing does not make an inherently dangerous and risky activity safe, especially if we are talking about radioactive thorium and uranium wastes that remain hazardous in the environment for generations to come.
“As such, it is most irresponsible of the Perak state government and KATS to promote environmentally unsound investments in rare earth, despite the ARE lesson and the controversial Lynas rare earth operations in Gebeng, Pahang,” she said today.
Meenakshi said both parties must act responsibly in halting investments that bring huge profits for companies in the short term but leave behind toxic, radioactive and hazardous legacies of waste dumps to be a burden for future generations.
“Instead, we should be promoting environmentally sound investments that benefit the public and the environment, both in the short- and long-term.
“We, therefore, call on the state government not to embark on any rare earth mining activities in the state, and for KATS not to promote such rare earth mining with the dubious label of ‘sustainable mining’,” she added.
The state goverment has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chinese company Chinalco GXNF Rare Earth Development, to start exploratory works as a first step in embarking on rare earth mining in the state.