TANAKA MEP breaks ground on RM70m Batu Kawan refinery
- TANAKA MEP Refinery, a joint venture of Japan’s TANAKA Precious Metal Technologies and Penang’s MEP Enviro Technology, broke ground on 8 October 2026 on a RM70 million refinery in Batu Kawan Industrial Park.
- The plant sits on about 3 acres with 45,000 sq ft of built-up area; Phase 1 (RM35 million) will make 99.99%-pure gold and potassium gold cyanide for chipmakers from the first quarter of 2029.
- It is the second precious-metal refinery in the park in a month, after Public Gold’s RM30 million refinery centre on 1.14 acres.
TANAKA MEP Refinery Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Japan's TANAKA Precious Metal Technologies Co Ltd and Penang-based MEP Enviro Technology Sdn Bhd, broke ground on 8 October 2026 on a RM70 million precious-metal refinery at Batu Kawan Industrial Park. The partners say it will be Malaysia's first "4N" refinery, producing gold at 99.99% purity, with commercial operations from the first quarter of 2029.
Penang's Yang di-Pertua Negeri, Tun Ramli Ngah Talib, officiated with Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow. Chow said gold is a critical input that Penang's chipmakers use to plate and connect tiny components, and that a refinery close by means faster delivery and lower costs for local manufacturers.
The plant
- Site: about 3 acres in Batu Kawan Industrial Park; the plot number has not been published
- Building: about 45,000 sq ft of built-up area
- Cost: RM70 million in all; Phase 1 accounts for RM35 million
- Phase 1 products: 4N gold and potassium gold cyanide (PGC), both used in electronics and semiconductor manufacturing
- Customers: manufacturers in Malaysia and across ASEAN
- Start: commercial operations expected in the first quarter of 2029
The numbers
- Site cover: 3 acres is about 130,680 sq ft of land, so the 45,000 sq ft of built-up area equals about 34% of the site
- Cost per sq ft: RM70 million on 45,000 sq ft is about RM1,556 per sq ft of built-up area, and Phase 1's RM35 million about RM778. Both figures include the refining equipment, not just the building
Who is behind it
- TANAKA: a Tokyo precious-metals group founded in 1885, with net sales of about ¥1.1 trillion in the year to December 2025. Its bonding-wire maker, Tanaka Electronics (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, has been in Penang since 1994
- MEP Enviro Technology: a waste and e-waste recovery company founded in 2005, with four plants in Malaysia and operations in Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. TANAKA put its 2022 revenue at ¥6.27 billion and its staff at about 580, 450 of them in Malaysia (2024 figures)
- How they met: in August 2024 MEP opened a RM100 million plant of about 2 hectares in Bukit Minyak Industrial Park, able to handle 18,000 tonnes of scheduled waste a month. At that opening, TANAKA signed a technical-assistance deal: MEP collects e-waste and production scrap in Malaysia and concentrates the precious metals, and TANAKA refines them to high purity in Japan. The new refinery brings that last step to Penang
MEP director Sean Ong said the aim is a more complete recycling chain, from recovery and high-purity refining back into the manufacturing supply chain.
A second refinery in the park
On 15 September, Public Gold launched its RM30 million Public Gold Refinery Centre in the same industrial park. That plant sits on 1.14 acres with about 43,472 sq ft of built-up area and can refine up to 10 tonnes of precious metals a year, expandable to 20 tonnes. TANAKA MEP has about 2.6 times the land for a building of similar size.
Batu Kawan has also drawn other chip-supply investment this month, including PEN S J Electronics' 8.5-acre plant in BKIP3.
Cover photo: InvestPenang.
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