{"id":1117107,"date":"2019-05-21T11:55:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T11:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=988510"},"modified":"2019-05-21T11:55:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T11:55:17","slug":"lynas-to-move-upstream-processing-of-rare-earths-from-malaysia-to-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1117107","title":{"rendered":"Lynas to move upstream processing of rare earths from Malaysia to Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rare earths miner Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC)\u00a0said Tuesday it intended to relocate its contentious processing plant<\/a> from Malaysia to one of two preferred sites in Western Australia, where its Mt Weld mine is located.<\/p>\n

The company, the world’s only major producer of rare earths outside China, said the A$500 million-plan ($346 million) aims to boost production, appease Malaysian regulators<\/a> and fend off takeover attempts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan is to invest in upstream processing close to our source (Mt Weld), with downstream processing (in Malaysia) close to our customers,\u201d chief executive Amanda Lacaze told investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a sound strategy. It is a sound strategy independent of any other external pressures, but in executing this strategy, which includes the relocation of cracking and leaching from Malaysia, we will also satisfy the Malaysian Government requirements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The company’s plan is to invest in upstream processing near its mine (Mt Weld), with downstream processing (in Malaysia) close to its customers.<\/q><\/p>\n

Moving its cracking and leaching operations from Malaysia to close to Mt Weld or to Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia, is also expected to help the company ramp up its production to 10.5kt of Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr) oxide a year in order to meet and profit from the expected demand growth.<\/p>\n

Lynas’ Malaysian operating licence is up for renewal in September, but\u00a0new, tough conditions recently imposed<\/a> by the Southeast Asian country to the miner triggered worries about potentially losing its licence to operate.<\/p>\n

The Malaysian Government has hinted that the permit renewal is conditional on the radioactive residue being removed from the Mt Weld concentrate before it is shipped to Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s six-year-old facility in the country \u2014 known as the Lynas Advance Material Plant (LAMP) \u2014 has been the cause of ongoing tension between Kuala Lumpur and the Sydney-based miner.<\/p>\n

LAMP 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 to the environment.<\/p>\n

Scrutiny escalated last year, with Kuala Lumpur setting a committee to review Lynas\u2019 operations. Lacaze\u00a0raised concerns about the impartiality<\/a>\u00a0of a couple of committee members, as both are known for being long time opponents of having the refinery located in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

In December, the country\u00a0ordered Lynas to remove 450,000\u00a0tonnes of radioactive waste<\/a>\u00a0stockpiled at its processing plant by Sept. 2., when the company\u2019s licence is up for renewal.<\/p>\n

Lynas, however, revealed\u00a0earlier this year that\u00a0it would not be able to comply<\/a>\u00a0with such demand by the given deadline.<\/p>\n

Until now, Lynas has mined for rare earths in\u00a0Western Australia and processed them in Malaysia. It produces neodymium and praseodymium, key ingredients in permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, energy efficient consumer devices and in the aerospace and defence industries.<\/p>\n

The post Lynas to move upstream processing of rare earths from Malaysia to Australia<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian miner, the world’s only major producer of rare earths outside China, said the A$500 million-plan ($346 million) aims to boost production, appease Malaysian regulators and fend off takeover attempts.<\/p>\n

The post Lynas to move upstream processing of rare earths from Malaysia to Australia<\/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":[647,1016,1757,1758,1545,404,369,426],"tags":[15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117107"}],"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=1117107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117148,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117107\/revisions\/1117148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1117107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1117107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1117107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}