S2 BONUS: Malaysia’s Rare Earth Carbonate Only Went to China. Until Now. | Milan Perlly, DTEC

Dustin Olsen (00:01)
Hi Milan, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Milan Perlly (00:04)
I'm doing great, Dustin. I'm doing great. How are you doing?

Dustin Olsen (00:08)
Great. We are really excited to have you on the show. And I say that of everyone on the show, but particularly today, this is a special episode we have for Rare Earth Exchanges because of some great news happening at DTEC. Before we get to that, however, I do want to highlight you and your role in the company. You are the new CEO, correct? You were COO, I believe.

Milan Perlly (00:35)
That's correct. So I am this currently the CEO of DTEC Mineral and Metal Technology Sdn Bhd. so we'll just leave it short DTEC. But first of all I wanna really want to thank you guys for having us on the show and that for allowing us to let you and the world know in the rare earth world what's going on with the success and the progress we've made in Malaysia that supports the United States and the Western world's interest in rare earths. Thank you so much for that. And yes, to clarify, I'm the CEO. I was previously the COO. Kishore [spelling unconfirmed] was the CEO. Kishore [spelling unconfirmed] is our Malaysian partner. He's currently the COO. And then we also have David Greer, which is the Chief Business Development Officer of DTEC.

Dustin Olsen (01:22)
That's great. And how long have you been at DTEC?

Milan Perlly (01:26)
So DTEC is a startup company. We started it in May last year while I was pursuing this REE doctrine of fulfilling the doctrine of mine to magnet for the United States. So I fell into this three years ago. But we started the company last year when we had a lot of very good traction to execute on some of the tasks to produce results. So it's literally over a year old startup company. And I do want to say we by design and we incorporate it in Malaysia. So we want it to look like it's a almost a 50-50 partnership Between Malaysian-owned and US-owned. So the US side, myself and David, own 51% of the equity. So it's majority US citizen-owned company. And our local Malaysian partner, who has 13 years' experience in oil and gas engineering and construction, they own 49%. So if you look at it from an optics standpoint, it's almost an equal partnership for equal benefits.

Daniel O'Connor (02:32)
Very very excited, Milan. And again, Rare Earth Exchanges has been following DTEC and the important work that you've been doing. And I think you know, first we should congratulate you on this milestone that has been achieved. And maybe for our audience maybe talk a little bit about the news that has happened in terms of the shipment and the importance of Malaysia in the rare earth ecosystem and a little bit about how you all have been able to come this far.

Milan Perlly (03:12)
Okay, wonderful. So why is Malaysia important in rare earth elements from a mining standpoint? So based on USGS geological report, China has the largest ore reserves or proven ore reserves, about 44 million tons of rare earth. And I won't get into the background of rare earth found in rocks as well as ionic clay, but let's just talk about ionic clay here. So China's the you know eight hundred pound gorilla that controls 93% of the finished rare earths in the world. They also have 44 million tons of proven reserves. Second comes Brazil at 21 million tons of proven reserves. It's also in the tropical belt country. Well tiny Malaysia or small Malaysia by comparison to Africa and so on, peninsula Malaysia is third with 16.1 million tons of proven reserves. Now that does not mean all of that is recoverable, but you easily can see you know we are just a little bit behind In third place to Brazil, and it's a significant player because Malaysia is an open stage that has you know what I would say equal favorability to Western markets as well as Chinese markets and investments. And it's not one of those countries that is in a communist government. We're a democratic governor. I say we because I was born and raised in Malaysia. I am a US citizen and I've spent a lot of my life in the US, close to forty years, but for the first twenty years of my life I spent in Malaysia. I just want to let you know why Malaysia is an important player in terms of reserves and a proven

Daniel O'Connor (04:36)
Right. And I think it's important you know, as we've been following, DTEC has been set up to really help both countries, you know, develop that value added you know products, processes, which is really exciting. So could you talk a little bit about at a high level at least, to the extent you can about This latest milestone, you know, we reported on it and but and it's gotten out in the news. I saw that you know different news agencies are picking it up. So maybe talk a little bit about you know what you have been able to accomplish so far.

Milan Perlly (05:39)
Okay, wonderful. So For in Malaysia, that is there is one legal mine that is mining and producing rare earth carbonate, which is sent to China for processing. so they have an export license or export permit, as you will, to export rare earth carbonate to China. So prior to that, nobody else has been able to secure an export license to export rare earth carbonate to any other part of the world. So we were the first company to be given an export license. To export rare earth carbonate to the United States, primarily for the purpose of R&D development. And our first allocation, which is very important, that we were given the export permit or license, whichever one you want to call it, or interchange it. That permit is for 700 metric tons of rare earth carbonate to be exported to the U.S. Now, of course, it'll go in tranches, and not all 700 maybe in one go, but our first shipment of 30 tons. Tons that we purchased legally from the state of Perak. we have it all packed and ready. and we are shipping it out right on the end of this month on the 31st on a vessel out of Penang Port in Malaysia. And it'll be arriving in Long Beach, California. So to go back to what you're saying, Daniel, we hope and we wish more companies will be able to apply with the Malaysian Ministry of Natural Resources to also do and succeed. In what we've done, having a permit to export rare earth carbonate to the United States. Now there is a minor condition in there. Malaysia is very badly looking for midstream processing for the rare earth carbonate that they process and not just to sell it. If you look at the analogy of crude oil, it's the same, right? Early on, the countries that had crude oil, you know, foreign companies come in and just take the crude oil out. You can say this is a similar analogy. So Malaysia wants to move up into the midstream area of processing, and our commitment is to bring

Daniel O'Connor (07:35)
Right.

Milan Perlly (07:42)
Technology proven technology to build a plant in Malaysia to do midstream processing. And we are so thankful and grateful with the Malaysian government ministries and departments that worked with us, you know, to educate us on what is needed in step two and step three in terms of collaboration between Malaysian institutions, government institutions, and the US for fulfilling on the knowledge transfer in the midstream processing. But like I said, we were the first company and we got an allocation for seven hundred metric tons and in short, twenty nine metric tons is going out to the good old USA at the end of October. And we are very excited about it.

Daniel O'Connor (08:25)
And yeah I and I think again that's historical in that I don't think ever any carbonate from Malaysia, you know, ionic clay, Southeast Asian Malaysia carbonate has made its way to the United States. That would be a first, would it not?

Milan Perlly (08:43)
That's correct, Daniel. That's correct. It is the first time rare earth carbonate from Malaysia is going to the United States. And you know, you know as much as I know about this. Carbonate is one step past ore. So it is something that you can take immediately and process. It's almost the similar analogies. You've got the crude out of the ground and it's crude oil and now all you have to do is refine it, right? So that's pretty much what carbonate is. And that's right.

Daniel O'Connor (09:11)
Yes. Yes.

Milan Perlly (09:13)
First time rare earth carbonate is going from Malaysia to the United States of America.

Daniel O'Connor (09:18)
And you know, just a little bit on Malaysia and you know, I was out there recently, I saw you out there, it was very nice. Kuala Lumpur is a great city. you know, very developed, I mean high rises everywhere. you know the Malaysian, it's a democracy, it is it's sort of federalist, I think, like the United States in the sense that it has a national government and it also has state governments. Do you wanna maybe talk a little bit about that, about how Malaysia is organized, just so the audience can better understand, you know, how maybe some of the complexity of doing what you've done.

Milan Perlly (09:54)
Yeah. Yep, I will try to explain first why we chose Malaysia, even though I was born and raised here. there are a couple of key factors that differentiate and makes Malaysia a differentiator and a more valuable partner in the ASEAN and Southeast Asian region for rare earth carbonate or businesses. First of all, Malaysia has a very stable political system and government. We do not have fate there is no fatalistic politics in Malaysia. I'm not going to name the other surrounding countries in ASEAN, but you there's demonstrations and there's every time there's demonstrations, there's fatalities. In Malaysia, we only had a race riot once in 1969. From then till now, the politics is not fatalistic. Number two, Malaysia is a landed country. And number three, as you pointed out about Kuala Lumpur, the entire peninsula in Malaysia is very highly developed in infrastructure, be it roadways, rail. you know, power generation, you know, gas. Malaysia is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world. So all this come into the good play of infrastructure stability supported by the political governance of stability and the court system. The second part is, you know You said, how does it work in Malaysia? So we have this. Well, a little bit more we're gonna dive into it. In Malaysia, the states have owned the mining rights. So anything, you know, mineral rights in the ground, not offshore, in the ground, is all a state rights. So you have to work with the state governments to get a mining license first, if you want to own and operate a mine. So very simply put, the states have the right to give you a mining license and allow the mining to happen. Now the federal government comes into play simplicitly to say the export license to export the minerals is controlled by the federal government because it goes through customs and other procedures. So both the dynamics of the state government and federal government are in play in a cooperative manner. Both have the oversight and power to enforce rules and regulations, either from the mining part or from the export part. So the relationship is really building the relationships and the know-how in the relationship. relationships at the state level as well as at the federal level of the government to enable the mineral to be taken out from the ground and exported to what I call the Western market because it's a capitalist market that will pay the best price based on supply and demand.

Daniel O'Connor (12:26)
So and you know, there is some precedence, right, for rare earth mining and also separation in that the Lynas has a facility in Malaysia, so already, right? So maybe just talk a little bit about, you know, this isn't the there's some precedent for this activity, right?

Milan Perlly (12:52)
Excellent question to be brought up. So, yes, Lynas is the only plant outside of you know Europe as well as China that does rare earth midstream processing, meaning taking the carbonate and purifying it to the final elements. But there's a key differentiator here. When Lynas was set up, it was set up in Malaysia, I believe, about 10 to 13 years ago to do midstream rare earth processing. It does 100% of its feedstock from the Australian mines, right? The rare earth mines in Australia. It does not process any rare earth carbonate or ore from Malaysia or from any of the surrounding countries. So Lynas's sole business purpose is to process ore that it ships all the way from Australia to its plant in Malaysia. So in other words, Lynas is not a player or not a solution and an answer for Malaysia's rare earth carbonate to be processed. And that is a differentiator. So if you want to look at it, it's like an offshore factory for processing Australian rare earth into finished products. I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying that does not give the Malaysian rare earth carbonate, you know, a chance to be processed and finished by a factory that is set up in Malaysia. So Lynas is not doing that. it may be in their plans in the future, but that was not the purpose they were set up for. And that's sadly. A loss for Malaysia because I strongly believe you know that should have been the first thing setting up a factory, a plant in Malaysia to process local minerals.

Daniel O'Connor (14:24)
Yeah, no, that's a very important point, Milan, that the Lynas plant does not use local ionic clay product, right? So assemblage. The geology of the rich geology of Malaysia was not included, which, you know, is perplexing to me, but That's why DTEC has come. So now if we look if we look at so it's for research purposes. and DTEC, I know that you all we've reported on your company that you have some partnerships. I know not everything can be disclosed, so you know, respect that. But I would imagine DTEC in the United States is talking with different

Milan Perlly (14:55)
That's good.

Daniel O'Connor (15:22)
Groups that might be interested in researching, for example, the carbonate that's been being sent over.

Milan Perlly (15:31)
Yeah. So eventually, Daniel, carbonate is processed into midstream, you know, finished minerals that are used into products by commercial companies, right? It's all commercial companies, your N D PRs for your EV cars, as well as paint, gallium, and semiconductors and so on and so forth. So the key thing we want to say here is although I'm not at liberty to disclose, we do have a licensing agreement that we license a technology coming from a western aligned country that is a proven technology to process and purify in rare earth carbonates as Elon Musk said it's not so much about being rare earth it's like who has the capability to separate and purify the rare earth right we have signed a licensing agreement for that technology with again like I said a western aligned country To supply us that technology that was signed on October 16th last year. So we have the right to use that technology to build a plant in Malaysia. That's one. Number two, we're also doing the R&D with the US educational institutions as well as government institutions, right? This goes back to all three steps from mining rare earth carbonate, you know, because rare earth is found basically in two forms: what we call rock as a slang, which is bastnäsite and monazite, or clay. In clay, It's already diluted. You think about, you know, you take salt or sugar and mix it up into, you know, in water, it's there, but it's diluted in the water. So when you talk about clay carbonate or clay rare earth, it's already diluted in the clay soil. Now, R&D is only the first step to the final vision in the horizon, it's to then understand what Malaysian carbonate is, to take out the impurities. In rare earth, when you finish the elements, you have to have four nines purity up to six nines. So you need to understand what you're working with, you know, the flow sheets and the formulations to separate and most importantly purify it to the highest possible standard that industry needs to use it for. So R and D, like you said, is a it's a step that we're doing. It's a first step. It's not the end goal. It is just the very first step to the big picture to establish Malaysia as a processing hub for its own rare earth produced in Malaysia. as well as the regional countries to finish materials that can be supplied to the Western market besides China. So we have to understand here we are not here to you know bring down China's supply chain. China controls ninety three percent of the finished rare earth elements produced in the world. We are here to say an alternative supply chain for the marketplace.

Daniel O'Connor (17:50)
Thank you. Yes. Well, I think that's critical. I mean, we launched rare earth exchanges formally just almost two years ago, still quite young, for the purpose of helping to accelerate the diversification of rare earth and critical mineral supply chains. Why? Because you need that, it's healthy. You can't have healthy markets without, you know, competition and information asymmetries and the like. So I think it's very important. That's why we've been very keen on tracking DTEC because I think it's important what you all are doing, okay. I think it's been very impressive how you know your group have been able to in very short amount of time establish these relationships and even make you know lead to this historic milestone okay. So, you know, with Malaysia, we've our research has found that they're actually quite sophisticated manufacturing. So there's actually a huge drone industry that's emerged there. There's also some robotics. And I mean, do you see in Malaysia where this sorry?

Milan Perlly (19:27)
Absolutely. Malaysia is a Silicon Valley factory. Malaysia is Silicon Valley's factory since the nineteen seventies. Intel and all the semiconductor companies build their chips in Malaysia. In fact, I would say more than eighty percent of the chips in the world have been produced in Malaysia since the late seventies until now, in Penang Island. It's a well known fact. So yes, I was just supporting what you're saying. It has a strong and diversified top notch manufacturing base.

Daniel O'Connor (20:04)
And is there just more on the Malaysian infrastructure, are there like local universities that specialize in engineering? Can you talk a little bit about sort of just the pedigree behind that? Like is it indigenous, is it local, are engineers coming from other Asian countries? What's sort of the ecosystem look like?

Milan Perlly (20:29)
Yeah, so a long time ago when I was growing up, there was hardly any private universities. Today there are. They're all government-run universities. And the premier university in Malaysia and the oldest is Universiti Malaya, and it's based in Kuala Lumpur. And then, you know, over the years and decades, more private and government universities opened up. So Universiti Malaya is the premier university, and they have two other campus branches that are working on rare earth, one in Kelantan State and one in So they have homegrown talent, you know, in PhD scientists that are working in geology for rare earth, amongst other minerals. Malaysia is mineral rich in bauxite, tin, iron, many others. So they have scientists working on the geology side, they have scientists from these are government universities or government-run universities, you know, also doing R&D research on the midstream processing, as well as, like you mentioned, the drone industry using actuator magnets and actuators.

Dustin Olsen (21:17)
Yeah.

Milan Perlly (21:28)
So it is there. Maybe they are not the best in the world because they don't have the best facilities or human capital to be the best in the world. But they're definitely, I would say, among the in the top 20, you know, or maybe even the top 10, right? If they had more money and more human capital talent, probably they could compete at the very best in the world standard. But they're almost there. So it's you know, it's no shame to them that they've punched higher than their weight.

Daniel O'Connor (21:58)
Yeah, that's what we found is that Malaysia and my trip over there I believe reinforced this, Milan, that Malaysia Kuala Lumpur is coming up. They're on the upswing. so you want to talk a little bit about the geology. So how pervasive are rare earth deposits in Malaysia? Maybe talk a little bit about that. We don't want you to give away any secrets here, but just at a high level

Milan Perlly (22:25)
Yeah.

Daniel O'Connor (22:27)
It you know, entice people about what you know, what is that they're number three, I believe you had mentioned in terms of known rare earth deposits. So what is it spread out is it in one location? Is it spread in different states?

Milan Perlly (22:42)
Alright, so we're gonna focus on peninsula Malaysia, where the rare earth industry, you know, and mining has taken off already. So peninsula Malaysia is a little peninsula that looks north-south. You know, it looks something like a pear that you know that's fat in the center and thin on the north and south end. Right in the middle of that peninsula, even though it's coming down from Thailand, is a central mountain range called Titiwangsa Mountain Range. Almost dead center coming down north-south, right? And ends in the state of Johor.

Daniel O'Connor (22:58)
Yes.

Milan Perlly (23:12)
So there's a nine states in peninsula Malaysia. And on the east and west side of that mountain range as it goes into the valleys, over the millions of years of geological weathering and you know topographical folding, you know, the rare earth deposits have been deposited there, amongst other minerals like I talked about earlier: tin, iron ore, and so on. But essentially that's where it is. It's in the valleys coming down, you know, not at the bottom of the valley, but among the hillsides, you know, not at the top of the mountain range, but I would say mid all the way to the ground level soil, you find it. And the local Malaysian Federal Department called the Department of Mineral and Geosciences. It's called JMG in the Malay language. They've also done mapping and they've found out that the four northern states in Malaysia, you know, hold the most rare earth deposits of the total sixteen million, right? And those states are Kedah, Perak, Kelantan and Terengganu. So these four states hold the bulk of the rare earth deposits that's known in Malaysia. Negeri Sembilan is also there and so are the other states, but this is where what we call the mother load resides.

Daniel O'Connor (24:26)
Right. That makes sense. And you know, again, we have our rankings. we're the only platform that has rankings, and we rank upstream, midstream, downstream, so the whole supply chain and recycling. And it's updated monthly. Okay, so we have algorithms that are at work here using AI and code to help investors understand rare earth and critical minerals as well. We're expanding into other critical minerals. one company that we have ranked high is the Southern Alliance mining. We've ranked them high because of their investment ownership in MCRE, which yeah, which is he a Malaysian heavy rare mine. and they but they ship all of presently all of their

Milan Perlly (25:12)
That's correct. MCRE.

Daniel O'Connor (25:25)
Outtake off take is taken to China. you know they're the only mine that we know of. We did some research. There are a lot of you know gray area mines I think in operation, but I think the government, you know, does a pretty good job of you know tracking down. Same thing happened in China by the way. We just wrote about that. There's a bunch of pirate operations in China and Indonesia. but You know, I think that DTEC is in a great position because you're a Malaysian and American company. you know, entrepreneurial. You all are really seasoned business people. And you're sort of bridging both worlds. I mean, what do you see what does the next twelve to twenty four months look like for DTEC in terms of you know, some maybe some key goals or objectives that you have. to the extent you can share, you know, because we have a lot of investors that come to Rare Earth Exchanges. So just for the investor community, where are you all going?

Milan Perlly (26:39)
Okay, so the name of our company is DTEC, you know, mineral and mining technology. So where are we going? It's pretty obvious we will be going into mining as well. Right now, like you pointed out, there's only one legal mine in Malaysia. It's called MCRE, Malaysia China Rare Earth. you know, forty percent of their shares are owned by a holding company called SAM, Southern Alliance Mining, that's three [name unclear] and all his partners, etc. So a hundred percent of that output, which is about Anywhere from 12 to 15,000 metric tons of carbonate that is produced from that mine, you know, 100% of that is exported to China. Now, I want to slowly pause because this is very important in any business when you talk about G to G, government to government. We have to sincerely thank the pinnacle of the leadership of the United States, President Trump. When he was here last year in November.

Daniel O'Connor (27:10)
Yeah.

Milan Perlly (27:35)
He signed a memorandum of understanding and had it done literally at light speed with Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Now that MOU, you know, states a couple of things, but the most important things that it was a key item that was negotiated between President Trump and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Now they are the pinnacle of both countries in terms of leadership, right? You need it to come from the top down. That MOU, President Trump and Anwar. Agreed that the US will have equal access to Malaysia's rare earth industry and rare earth carbon. And we are the first to try to fulfill to take that and send it to China [to the United States] [Milan appears to have misspoken]. I'm inviting other American companies and other Western companies to come, but I'm saying that is the pinnacle that we needed from the pinnacle leadership. And that document is you know, is so valuable in the sense that we can now execute and fulfill on the solution that was put forward in that MOU.

Daniel O'Connor (28:35)
Well, I you know, and I would second that. I mean, again, you know, we've we track industrial policy of the United States as well as other countries, including China, quite closely. And we've been critical of some of President Trump's moves, but generally speaking, no president has done more for critical minerals and rare earths than President Trump. Period. I mean there's nobody Yeah, there's

Milan Perlly (28:49)
Yeah. Absolutely. No doubt about.

Daniel O'Connor (29:04)
That's you know, you know, there's people that have Trump derangement syndrome and they just can't get themselves to acknowledge a fact. But no, he's done an amazing job on that.

Milan Perlly (29:17)
And Daniel, you're aware, in February this year, the Trump administration with Secretary of State and National Security Director Marco Rubio managed to organize a conference and a meeting in Washington, D.C., where 55 nations, foreign ministers, were represented for the Critical Minerals Agreement. 55 nations in one place at the same time on the same day. Right? This is how the Trump administration moves. It's not you know, individual here and there and it takes years and years. They brought all together to agree that the United States has a great need for critical minerals. And are you going to help us get access if your country has critical minerals? In short, that was what it was. And they all signed on to it. All right. So the ability to pull off things like that is almost at light speed, you know, compared to what I'm saying the normal old way of doing things, which would take years.

Daniel O'Connor (30:01)
Yes. The yeah. The normal forget about normal. Those days are over. whatever that means. Whatever normal means. You know, now there is China and China has extensive you know, we're independent and critical, Milan, so we have to always talk about the other side of some vantage. You know, China has extensive ties into Malaysia and you know You have to always kind of keep an eye out on what they're doing. You know, we don't, you know, we appreciate some of the innovations they've done. The challenge with their model is it's state backed. Okay, so it takes into account an ideology and then and uses that to orchestrate, and uses state capital to orchestrate businesses as economic weapons. So you know, how concerned are you that China will potentially leverage its ties in Malaysia to disrupt legitimate competition? Is that a concern or am I being paranoid?

Milan Perlly (31:31)
No, I wouldn't say you're being paranoid because the facts of the matter are clear. like you said, Chinese this China companies that are operating in this field. I'm not going to talk about other fields in rare earth mining in Malaysia, they're state-owned companies, right? They are not just commercial companies from China. So they're state owned. So they have two axes of power. One, they have, you know, government money at their disposal. They don't really have to run their business in competition as a commercial company. Competing with the entire other commercial companies in the world or in China. They're state run owned companies and they have state capital. That's number one. Now you brought about China having a strong influence in Malaysia in investment and businesses. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, when he sent the congratulatory message to President Trump when he was inaugurated for his second term in January last year, part of the congratulatory message still says the United States is the largest foreign direct investment. Investor in Malaysia and has been for decades. So we are not number two or number three of falling apart. Now, our investments come from commercial companies in America. They don't come from government, federal government money or federal government-backed companies. We don't have that concept, right? So to understand that, so in the sense that money can and will come from the US. When I say money, I'm talking about capital to grow this industry. Your concern is also legitimate because Malaysia officially is states its stands and repeatedly repeats this. It is a non-aligned country. That means it doesn't align with any you know political groupings of power, right? so it states this unequivocally that it is a non-aligned nation. So it wants to be wants to do business with both sides. The Western world, the Chinese world, you know, the communist countries and so on, it's open for business.

Daniel O'Connor (33:15)
Yeah. Right.

Milan Perlly (33:28)
So, yeah, we do see we didn't do this. So the United States and the United States companies and the other companies in northern part of Asia, in Japan and Korea, realized that China weaponized and they took their own initiative to weaponize the supply of finished rare earth elements last year twice in May and in September. Now, this was not our doing, right? So we're just being aware that this harm of weaponizing the export. finished rare earth materials as significant consequential damages to commercial interests you know in any industry, aerospace, car, you know, a slew, semiconductor, and so on. So what we are doing is fulfilling the concern of the you know Western nations. Build and fulfill on an independent supply chain from mine to magnet. Again, you're not here to kill China's production, China's capability.

Daniel O'Connor (34:10)
Yeah.

Milan Perlly (34:26)
But we also need to understand, realize, and manage the risk of being at the mercy of being weaponized, not just, you know, someone having 93% of the control of the output, but that control was weaponized and executed twice last year. And that is a wake-up call and really shocking to the world in terms of commercial business interests.

Daniel O'Connor (34:50)
Certainly, certainly we've been chronicling that since we've started this platform, you know, formally January 2025. I will say this: I think it's highly impressive what DTEC has done. You have created a American Malaysian company. It's a startup, but it's already global. You have You also have ties in Europe, of course, and you have developed the relationships, contracts with different parties to help develop, facilitate, and execute on complex deal flow, involving rare earth mining, export.

Milan Perlly (35:39)
That's correct.

Daniel O'Connor (35:45)
And you're working now on refining. So it what in terms of the company and partnerships, you know, are you all, do you have partners already in mind? Are you looking for certain types of partnerships, maybe if you, how is that gonna look in two thousand twenty seven?

Milan Perlly (36:11)
Okay. So from the sector that we're we do have partners in mind because we can't disclose them. We have non-disclosure agreements. we're talking direct and indirect partners. When I say direct, you know, partners that wanna work with us to do the mining, because we are going to do mining, and midstream processing, which is the separation and the purification of the rare earth elements. Right? It's like taking crude oil and making it to all the distillates, for example. But we're not so much involved in the third stage in making magnets or actuators and so on. You know, that it's

Daniel O'Connor (36:19)
Understood. Yes.

Milan Perlly (36:41)
Capital intensive and so on. The first two is, you know, a handful already. Now, from that standpoint, we also welcome others to talk to us because there are a lot of American companies in different sectors of the business, like I say, from car industry to aerospace to so on, that are hoping, you know, once our ball gets rolling and we are able to move forward from R&D into commercial export of rare earth carbonate to the separators, you know, in the independent supply chain in the western market, they can then purchase that. So they are what I call our indirect partners or indirect customers. They don't purchase the carbonate, but the carbonate is a feedstock that is needed and must be there. It's not a it must be there to produce the end rare earth elements, right? So they are indirectly supporting us and working with us as what we call indirect clients. And when you also have the direct partnerships and direct clients, you know, the mining

Daniel O'Connor (37:27)
Yes.

Milan Perlly (37:37)
As well as the capital companies that want to invest in capital, as well as the processing, the technology that I just talked to you about, separation, purification, midstream, building that. So we are engaging with some very well-known companies that are reputable and have proven in this space, but we've also welcome others that want to come into the game because we know that this market is only going to grow by leaps and bounds. So there will always be new companies that can also succeed. And we are open to have the discussion because look, the way we want it to be is a win win situation for both, you know, the countries that are producing it as well as the countries and businesses that are using it. That's the simplest way I can put it. End to end, both ends of the book.

Daniel O'Connor (38:20)
Yeah. Yeah. Makes total sense. And you know, one thing we didn't clarify, I think it's important to mention, is that the Malaysian ionic clay assemblages are very rich in yttrium and very important heavy rare earth elements. So just to clarify that this is a very special mineralogy and geology. that is in Malaysia, you know, gifted from above. And it's you know, it's a wonderful country. Like I said, I was there recently. I saw you out there. I was extremely impressed with Kuala Lumpur and the people and the country, you know, just getting to the airport, jumping on a train, getting to it's one of the most efficient places, you know, that I've ever been to. So very, very impressive. Dustin, any final thoughts as we and we probably wanna, you know, have Milan share, you know, how folks can get in touch with DTEC.

Dustin Olsen (39:28)
Yeah, absolutely. And before we get to that, I this has been great conversation and I think there's certainly lots to celebrate, but I don't wanna undersell the struggle or the challenges that were present to even get to this point. So Milan, I'm curious if you could share with us, over the last year, what has been the hardest part? The geology, the permits, the money, the politics, what's the journey been like to get here today?

Milan Perlly (39:57)
I want to say all of the above, but I want to be more specific. So the first thing we wanted to do when we wanted to take carbonate out of Malaysia, we had to apply for the permit from the federal ministry, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability. So when I started talking to them last year, they told me that in order to apply for this permit, you need to first be able to have access to the carbonate that's being produced legally. So you have to go obtain it first, meaning to say you have to buy it. You cannot show me the intent to export this. You have to go secure the ability to buy it and buy it. And then come back to us and tell us, you know, you want to apply for a permit and how much is the allocation in the metric tons you want to export. So it was like a chicken and egg situation. So to cut a long story short, you know, I went to the state of Perak. I want to thank, you know, the state of Perak and Menteri Besar Incorporated Perak and the land and mine divisions of Perak. You know, that worked with me to secure supply and the first thirty tons of carbonate, and we had to pay for it in full because that's the way state governments all over the world do business, right? You can't pay 50 first and pay fifty later. So we took a risk in paying for it full. it's quite a pretty penny in a couple of hundreds of thousands of US dollars worth, take possession of that material and then apply for the permit with the federal ministry to export it, right? And we had to prove many other things besides just applying for a permit to export. They want to say why? Are you going to invest in this country? Are you know you're gonna take time to bring midstream technology, you know, and many other hurdles as part of the process to get that permit? And I won't dive into that, but I'm just saying that they wanted to be sure why did all this hard time and hurdles? They wanted to be sure that we were here to stay. for a long term business and benefits, and not take something and run, like they say, hit and run. They wanted to be absolutely sure DTEC, you know, and the funding and the partners DTEC was working with and are continuing to work with are here for the long term. So the National Resource Ministry, Yang Berhormat the minister, Arthur Joseph Kurup, Dato Zamri, which is the Chief director of the geoscience and mineral department in that ministry, like I said, as well as the state, Menteri Besar Incorporated Perak, you know, and Dr. Anuar [spelling unconfirmed], who is a CEO, all of them worked, you know, to help us get there. There's only so much that they can do, and then we have to move the ball ourselves. And we did work with the US State Department's over here, which is a US Embassy, and we did work with the White House administration. back in DC, I went there twice. So there are the different pieces of government, state and federal, you know, that assisted us and carried us along, even though there were hurdles to get to the finish line. And we have to be thankful and show our thanks and gratefulness for all of them for cooperating with us to help us get this far, even though there were challenges. I think those were legitimate challenges to so called figure out if we are the real deal, we are here for the long term. And we're not here for the hit and

Dustin Olsen (43:18)
Amazing. Thank you for sharing, Milan. And if people want to get in touch with you, learn more, get more involved, where should we send them?

Milan Perlly (43:29)
Yep, they should Google D T E C and our website is dtecmmt.com [website corrected to dtecmmt.com]. So if they do that, I wanna give the whole website: dtecmmt.com. But you know, just Google DTEC D T E C and it'll most likely hit us. send us an inquiry or give us a phone call. We have an office here in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, which is in the s about twenty kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur's heart. You know, it's just between Kuala the heart of Kuala Lumpur and the airport. That office has been long established there under DTEC's parent company for more than thirteen years. So yeah, please get in touch with us and we'll be happy to see how we can move this ball further forward for all of us to be successful in this area, including rare earth exchange. I wanna want to thank you for a wonderful job that you're doing in exposing what we call the capitalist market of supply and demand. Whether it's for rare earth ores, rare earth carbonate, rare earth finished metals, you are the first exchange, right? There is no exchange in the world that says, you know, you can come here and you know that Daniel, when you reached out to us and told us about this exchange, we were shocked because all we knew about was the Shanghai Metals Market, you know, in terms of looking at rare earth prices and so on. But it is you know truly wonderful that you've set up this exchange as well. You need a marketplace. you know, a professional marketplace to also infuse and may be the catalyst for this to grow.

Daniel O'Connor (45:05)
Appreciate it.

Dustin Olsen (45:06)
Percent. We appreciate it. hopefully we'll have you on the show again for another update, but we appreciate you taking the time with us today.

Milan Perlly (45:14)
Thank you so much for all of you have for having me on the show. And I wish all of us success, including the United States, in building and maintaining its own independent supply chain of rare earth elements from the mine all the way down to midstream processing and the magnets. Thank you very much. Have a great, wonderful day and a weekend, gentlemen.

Daniel O'Connor (45:35)
Thank you.