Malaysia announced today it was extending a moratorium on bauxite mining by two months to Sept 14, as existing stockpiles remain high.

The federal government and Pahang state government said in a joint statement there was still an estimated 5.4 million tonnes of bauxite stockpiled around the Kuantan port yet to be cleared, despite an earlier extension to the moratorium.

Since the moratorium was imposed in January, only 187,438 tonnes had been exported as of June 1, the two governments said.

To speed up work in clearing the stockpile, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and the Pahang state government have agreed to facilitate exports to ship out the remaining bauxite within the two-month period.

“The moratorium period will end once the stockpile is cleared,” the two governments said in the statement.

Malaysia’s largely unregulated bauxite mining industry has boomed in the past two years to meet demand from China, filling in a supply gap after Indonesia banned exports, but the frenetic pace of digging has led to a public outcry, with many complaining of water contamination and destruction of the environment.

Late last year, bauxite mining was blamed for turning the waters and seas red near Kuantan, the capital of Malaysia’s third-largest state and key bauxite producer Pahang, following which, in January, the government imposed its first three-month ban on mining the commodity.

- Reuters