Bauxite miners in Kuantan have been warned to stop their activities for good or face action in the form of a human blockade by environmental NGO Protectors of Nature's Treasures Society (Peka) Pahang.

The NGO said it will give the miners till Jan 15 to cease their bauxite mining and transport activities in Kuantan completely.

"If not, Peka Pahang along with other NGOs and thousands of local residents will hold a large-scale human blockade to block the trucks and machineries at all exits of the bauxite mine in Kuantan, along with the entries at the bauxite stockpiles in Gebeng and Kuantan Port," Peka chairperson Khaidir Ahmad said in a statement yesterday.

While Peka welcomed the cabinet's instructions to the Pahang government to cease all bauxite mining in Kuantan temporarily, Khaidir said the mining must be stopped completely for the welfare of the environment and the people.

The fight against bauxite mining has been an uphill one for dissenting locals and has turned local landowners who rent out their land to the miners into overnight millionaires.

Malaysian bauxite export spiked 1,100 percent year-on-year in 2014 to become China's top supplier, after Indonesia banned exports to encourage the growth of the local aluminum industry.

Exporters are now mostly shipping out raw ore, but purifying the material will fetch a price of more than 20 times more, at US$43.5 (RM186) per tonne as at early December.

Bauxite washing generates large amounts of waste water that is often poorly stored and it seeps into rivers, potentially poisoning them with heavy metals and further deepening Kuantan's growing woes.