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Malaysia

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The sources listed are the ones this profile uses, with the years their figures describe. The access date is today.

Malaysia mined 0% (USGS) of the world's rare earths in 2025 (estimated) and refined 5.6% (IEA).

5.6%

of the world's rare earths refining in 2025, according to IEA · about 1 in 20

#2 in rare earths refiningANNUAL 2025

  • Materials with a production share

    1

    with a mining or refining share on record

  • Exports of the ten materials

    $735M

    2024; most of it rare earths; 40 partner countries

  • Grid emissions intensity

    606gCO2e/kWh

    2025

  • Imports of the ten materials

    $3.6bn

    2024; most of it copper; 71 partner countries

OverviewSupply chainMoneySustainabilityRisks & policySourcesHistory & talk

Overview

What it produces

Share of world output, per material and stage. Each bar is one source's figure; where two sources report the same stage, both are shown and never blended. A full-width bar would be 100%.

  • Rare earths· Refine

    • 5.6%about 1 in 20#2 in rare earths refiningIEA, 2025 · 5 kt REE

      Rank 2 of the 5 countries with a figure in this IEA table.

  • Rare earths· Mine

    • 0%#12 in rare earths miningUSGS, 2025 (estimated) · 110 t

      Rank 12 of the 12 countries with a figure in this USGS table.

Key facts

Country code
MYS
GDP
$472bn (2025)
Mineral rents, share of GDP
0% (2021)
Ores and metals, share of goods exports
3.8% (2025)
Mining area, all commodities
112 km² (2019; rank 62 of 144)

Money →Sustainability →Risks & policy →

Map

Basemap: Natural Earth (public domain)
  • Malaysia

Sites are those in the open sources. A site missing here is missing from the sources, not from the world.

Country in context

Rare earths: Refining (IEA), 2025. All rows come from the same table.

Country in context: Rare earths, Refining (IEA), 2025
Countrykt REEShare of worldSource
MalaysiaThis country55.6 %
ChinaLargest producer in the table7583.3 %
World totalWorld total as the source gives it89–

Supply chain

Every figure the sources give for this country, its trade partners per material, and where its sites are.

Production, refining and reserves

The latest year of each series. Share is of the series total: the larger of the source world total and the sum of its rows. Rank counts only the countries that have a number in that series.

Production, refining and reserves: Malaysia
SeriesAmountShare of worldSource
Rare earths: Mine production2025 (estimated) · USGS MCS 2026 · rank 12 of 12110 t0.0 %
Rare earths: Refining (IEA)2025 · IEA GCMO 2026 · rank 2 of 55 kt REE5.6 %
Rare earths: Reserves2025 · USGS MCS 2026 · rank 11 of 11710 000 t0.8 %

Trade partners

6 recorded flows, 2024

Basemap: Natural Earth (public domain)
  • Recorded trade flow; a thicker line is a larger value
  • Malaysia

Lines join the middle of each country. They are not shipping routes.

Recorded trade flows of Malaysia: Rare earths
PartnerMaterialYearValue, US$Source
Export toChinaRare earthsRefine2024$194M
Import fromAustraliaRare earthsRefine2024$128M
Export toViet NamRare earthsRefine2024$73M
Export toJapanRare earthsRefine2024$64M
Export toThailandRare earthsRefine2024$44M
Export toThailandRare earthsRefine2024$12M

Reconciled customs data (CEPII BACI), by value. The data holds only the largest flows of each material, so this is not the country’s full trade.

0 sites, deposits and projects on record are listed with the map in the Overview →

Money

What the trade data and the World Bank record in money terms. Every value is a reported figure with its own year.

All recorded trade flows of 2024 under the customs codes that isolate one of the ten materials, by value (CEPII BACI, reconciled estimates, current US dollars). Codes that mix several materials are left out, so trade in those materials is understated; gallium and germanium have no usable code at all. Each material lists its five largest partners. Why trade data blurs some materials

Exports of the ten materials

$735Min 2024, with 40 partner countries

Imports of the ten materials

$3.6bnin 2024, with 71 partner countries

The economy around mining

World Bank indicators. Each has its own latest year, shown next to the value; mineral rents are often several years old.

  • GDP (current US$)

    $472bn

    Year 2025

  • Mineral rents (% of GDP)

    0%

    Year 2021

  • Ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports)

    3.8%

    Year 2025

Government revenue from extractives

No data yet. Malaysia has no EITI summary record with a government total. Countries report only if they implement the EITI Standard; a missing record does not mean there is no such revenue.

EITI open data

Investment pipeline

announced figures

Planned and under-construction projects in Malaysia with a publicly announced capital cost, public financial backing, or both. Each line is one statement by the named publisher on the given date; the atlas adds nothing to it.

No data yet. The atlas has read no announcement of this kind for a project in Malaysia. The list is short and hand-read; a missing project is missing from the list, not from the world.

A short, hand-read list, not a census: 19 projects in all. Announced amounts are not spending, a letter of interest or a conditional commitment is not a loan, and amounts stay in the currency of the announcement.

Public support instruments

Stockpiles, price floors, offtake and purchasing programmes and public funds of Malaysia's government, as dated policy events of the type "public support". Each is one statement by its publisher.

No data yet. The atlas has read no public support instrument of Malaysia's government. The list is short and hand-read.

These figures are informational, not financial advice.

Sustainability

Four indicators, the same on every profile. Each is a figure with its unit, year and source, or a plain statement that there is none.

  • Carbon

    Emissions intensity of the country's electricity grid.

    606gCO2e/kWh

    2025Reported

    Higher than 76% of the other 208 countries with a grid figure.

    • It describes the national grid, not mining or refining. Sites may run on their own power.

  • Water

    Share of the country's mine sites on record that lie in high or extremely high baseline water stress.

    No mine or brine site with a water-stress class is on record in this country.

    • Counted by site, not by tonnage: it is not a share of production.
    • "Arid and Low Water Use" is a class of its own in the source and is not counted as high.

  • Land

    Land visibly used by mining in the country, every commodity together.

    112km²

    2019Estimated

    Higher than 57% of the other 143 countries with a mapped mining area.

    • Rank 62 of 144 countries by area.
    • Mapped from satellite images for all mining in a country. It cannot be attributed to one material or one site.

  • Circularity

    Recycling's share of demand.

    Not available per country: recycling rates in the atlas are published per material, for the EU as a whole.

There is no overall score: the four figures measure different things and are not added up. How to read these figures

Risks & policy

Export controls in force

Compiled by USGS, effective January 2026. Not a live feed.

Chokepoints at sea

The atlas has no record of which minerals pass through which sea passage, so no chokepoint figure is attached to this profile. Current ship counts for the main passages are on the Live page. Open the Live page

Gaps

What the atlas is missing for Malaysia

Computed from the data. Each line names a record that exists and one that does not. It marks missing data, not missing industry.

  • Listed as a rare earths producer (0% of world output; Mine production, 2025), but no mine is on record.
  • Listed as a rare earths refiner (5.6% of world output; Refining (IEA), 2025), but no processing plant is on record.
  • A rare earths producer (0% of world output; Mine production, 2025), but no site record names an owner or operator.
  • Trade is partial by design: the atlas holds only each material's largest flows. 11 of them name this country.

Add dataAll gaps, across materials

Sources

Every source this profile uses, with its licence, the years its figures describe and how sure the figures are. Each chip on the profile opens the single record.

The mining-area figure comes from a share-alike source (CC-BY-SA-4.0). It is kept in its own file under that licence, apart from the rest of the atlas's data.

History & talk

Revision history and discussion are coming soon.

Every change to a figure will be listed here with its source, its credit and its review, and each profile will have a place to discuss it. Until then the data changes only when a source is updated, and every figure links to that source.

What can be contributed today

What we don't know yet

No open source we may use gives these figures. Nothing is estimated to fill them. If you know a public source, add it.

Type the name of a material, a country, a site or a company.