Kuantan, Malaysia. February 2012. More than 5,000 people rallied against a nearly finished factory on Malaysia's east coast. The factory belonged to Lynas, an Australian mining company. It was going to refine rare earths. The protesters carried signs about radioactive waste. Police stood by. Anwar Ibrahim, then the opposition leader, said his coalition would cancel the plant if it won the next election.

Lynas opened the plant anyway, and it still runs. But the fight left a mark. For years, rare earth refining in Malaysia carried the weight of waste, politics, and public anger.

Anwar is now prime minister. This week, DTEC Mineral and Metal Technology, a startup that is 51% owned by American citizens, said it plans to spend $600 million on a rare earth refinery in Malaysia, with completion targeted within three years. The first plant would handle 5,000 metric tonnes of material a year, drawn from the country's ionic clay deposits. Ionic clays are a source of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium, which go into high-temperature magnets. They also tend to carry far less radioactive thorium than the hard-rock ores Lynas processes.

That matters because Malaysia has restricted exports of raw rare earths since 2024. The government wanted to protect its resources, not ship them out unprocessed. But earlier this month, it issued guidelines that ease the moratorium. Unprocessed rare earths can now leave the country for research or processing, subject to conditions. DTEC is the first company approved under them. The approval covers up to 700 metric tonnes of rare earth carbonate from the state of Perak. The first shipment, about 30 tonnes, goes to U.S. companies and research institutions to test how to separate and refine Malaysia's ionic clay.

DTEC says it is eligible for funding from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the Development Finance Corporation, and the Department of Defense under the trade and critical minerals pact that Donald Trump and Anwar signed in 2025. EXIM has expressed support for potential financing of up to $650 million. CEO Milan Perlly, a Malaysian-born American citizen, says the company wants two plants with combined capacity of 10,000 tonnes, one on the east coast and one on the west, and eventually its own mine.

Malaysia estimates it has 16.1 million tonnes of rare earth resources, much of it not yet proven commercially viable. Almost none of it is refined locally. That is the gap DTEC wants to fill. The question is speed. DTEC says three years. We will see.

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SMM reported that Baotou Huahong New Material Technology has started production at its 20,000-tonne rare earth permanent magnet project. The company is aiming for 2.4 billion yuan in annual output. Baotou is already the center of China's rare earth magnet industry. This adds another large-scale project while Western magnet plants are still years from full production.

USA Rare Earth jumped 13% in a single session on October 28. Critical Metals rose 12% and TMC climbed 11%. Lithium producers SQM and Albemarle each gained about 6%. MP Materials rose 7%, and the VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF gained 4%, against 0.6% for the S&P 500. USA Rare Earth had no news of its own. TIKR's read was that the move was investor sentiment toward the sector, not a change in company fundamentals

Shanghai Metals Market reported that China's rare earth oxide production rose in October, driven by growth in recycling. Separately, SMM's October 27 afternoon comment said PrNd oxide prices held steady and downstream inquiries were mostly tentative, with actual orders limited.

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The 7th International Conference on Rare Earth Materials runs November 3–6 in Palermo, Italy. It is organized by the Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the REMAT committee, the University of Palermo, and Vilnius University. Topics include optical properties, magnetic materials, rare earth recovery, and advanced applications.

— REMAT 2026, INTiBS

China's 9th Rare Earth Standards Working Meeting of 2026 was held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Three working groups reviewed and pre-reviewed 22 rare earth standards at the national, industry, and association levels. Standards set the technical terms of trade in rare earth products.

— Shanghai Metals Market, October 29

China Rare Earth Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Northeastern University to advance rare earth innovation and workforce development. The delegation also visited the Liaoning Materials Laboratory and the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Metal Research to explore commercialization and advanced materials collaboration.

— Rare Earth Exchanges, October 19

MP Materials will release third-quarter results after the market close on Thursday, November 5, with a call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific. In Q2, the company produced 840 tonnes of NdPr oxide, up 41% from a year earlier. It reported $108.5 million in revenue and $17.6 million in price protection agreement income, for $126.1 million combined.

— MP Materials