{"id":1102674,"date":"2019-02-28T11:10:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=974229"},"modified":"2019-02-28T11:10:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:10:54","slug":"lynas-auditors-flag-material-risk-for-the-rare-earths-miner-over-malaysia-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1102674","title":{"rendered":"Lynas auditors flag ‘material risk’ for the rare earths miner over Malaysia conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auditors to Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC) warned of a material risk to its business, after the company revealed it would not be unable to comply with tough conditions imposed by the Malaysian government<\/a> on its licence to operate in the country last year.<\/p>\n

The miner, one of the world\u2019s main suppliers of rare earths outside China, said on Thursday<\/a> it could not meet the timeline to export radioactive waste imposed by the country\u2019s Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) before September.<\/p>\n

In December, the\u00a0body told Lynas to remove 450,000\u00a0tonnes of radioactive waste<\/a> stockpiled at its processing plant by Sept. 2., when the company\u2019s licence is up for renewal.\u00a0Lynas has appealed<\/a> against the decision.<\/p>\n

Exporting the residue, known as WLP, within the mandated timeline is “unachievable”, said the miner in its first half year results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The miner, one of the world\u2019s main suppliers of rare earths outside China, won\u2019t be able to export its radioactive waste by September \u2014 the deadline imposed by Kuala Lumpur.<\/q><\/p>\n

It noted it continued to engage with the government, adding it had \u201creasonable confidence\u201d that a resolution could be achieved.<\/p>\n

If negotiations with the Malaysian government broke down,\u00a0Lynas could transport its radioactive waste back to Australia or to a third country, or relocate its processing operations altogether.<\/p>\n

Auditors Ernst & Young drew attention to Lynas\u2019 statement, saying it raised doubts about its business.\u00a0\u201cThese conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the consolidated entity\u2019s ability to continue as a going concern,\u201d EY wrote.<\/p>\n

Shares in Lynas fell as much as 10% in early trading, hitting a two-week low, but recovered later, closing down only 2% at A$1.76.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s six-year-old facility \u2014 known as the Lynas Advance Material Plant (LAMP) \u2014 was the centre of relentless attacks from environmental groups and local residents while under construction in 2012. They feared about the\u00a0impact the low-level radioactive waste the refinery generates could have\u00a0on the health of those living nearby and the environment.<\/p>\n

Scrutiny picked up last year, with Kuala Lumpur setting a committee to review Lynas\u2019 operations. The company\u2019s chief executive and managing director, Amanda Lacaze\u00a0raised concerns about the impartiality<\/a>\u00a0of a couple of members of such team, as both are known for being long time opponents of having the refinery in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

That led to minister Fuziah Salleh, who chaired the inquiry group, to\u00a0step down<\/a>\u00a0and the committee letting Lynas continue storing residues at the plant, while it awaited the decision on a longer-term application.<\/p>\n

“I am especially relieved that Lynas will have to remove its hazardous waste from Malaysia,” Salleh\u00a0said applauding the decision<\/a>. “A responsible\u00a0 corporation would have made sure that its wastes have a realistic and safe disposal mechanism before commencing its operations to generate them.<\/p>\n

Sydney-based Lynas mines rare earths, crucial in the production of magnets, in\u00a0Western Australia, but processes them in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The post Lynas auditors flag ‘material risk\u2019 for the rare earths miner over Malaysia conditions<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ernst & Young report raises concerns about the company’s future due to Malaysia’s order to remove its radioactive waste by September.<\/p>\n

The post Lynas auditors flag ‘material risk’ for the rare earths miner over Malaysia conditions<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[647,1757,1758,1545,404,369,426],"tags":[15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1102674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1102739,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102674\/revisions\/1102739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1102674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1102674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1102674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}