The Department of Mineral and Geoscience has estimated that Malaysia’s mineral resource potential, at today’s prices, is worth some RM235 billion.

 

The importance of minerals to the Malaysian economy is not solely in their production value and the number of people directly or indirectly employed in their extraction. Their added significance is as essential raw material inputs to a wide range of downstream industries, including the energy, construction and manufacturing industry.

Adequate and assured supplies of minerals are necessary for the country’s economic growth and development. For its relatively small size, Malaysia is well endowed with mineral resources.  Their extraction and use have played and will continue to play an important role in the socio-economic development of Malaysia in the years ahead as the nation strives to become a fully developed industrialised nation by 2020.  Indeed, it will be timely for Malaysia to also now embark on developing a comprehensive mineral resource planning requirement for the future needs of our industries and the economy, as has been undertaken by many developed industrialised nations.

At this time of record high prices for commodities including metals and minerals, pro-active efforts are needed on the part of the Government in ensuring that the nation benefits through the expansion of the domestic mineral resource industry.  Malaysia should also be less reliant on the importation of mineral feed materials, which if perpetuated will not only drain away our foreign exchange but the resultant high mineral input costs to the manufacturing and other economic sectors could translate into rising inflation and high cost of living to our domestic consumers and the general population with serious consequential implications.
 
To expand and to become an important source of economic growth and wealth for the country and at the same time reduce the reliance on imports, the mineral resource industry needs to attract investments in exploration and mining development.  In our country today, there is lack of development in the mineral industry due to the low level of prospecting, exploration and mining activity. In order to overcome this lack of developmental activity in our mineral resource industry, there must be a climate conducive for potential investors to be attracted to undertake mining investments in the country.  So, therefore, it is necessarily incumbent upon Government to address this issue as a matter of priority.

The initiative by the industry players to develop malaysianminerals.com, an online networking portal that provides information on the mineral resource industry in Malaysia is in itself a noble effort, as not only will it be of useful service to the domestic community members, but also to prospective local and foreign investors interested in venturing into mining and related industries in Malaysia.  In addition, this portal also reflects the commitment and pro-active effort of the industry members, in promoting and advancing the development and interests of the mining and mineral resource industry in Malaysia.