{"id":1151789,"date":"2019-11-26T05:07:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1007668"},"modified":"2019-11-26T05:07:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:07:12","slug":"lynas-close-to-securing-funding-for-rare-earths-plant-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1151789","title":{"rendered":"Lynas close to securing funding for rare earths plant in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC)&nbsp;and<br \/>\nits United States-based partner Blue Line Corporation&nbsp;are fine-tuning funding<br \/>\nplans to build a rare earths plant in Hondo, Texas.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lynas, which controls just over 10% of the global rare<br \/>\nearths market, signed in May a memorandum of understanding&nbsp;with Texas-based<br \/>\nBlue Line to set up a rare earths separation facility in the south-central state.<\/p>\n<p>Funding details are expected to be unveiled by the end of February, chairman Mark Harding said at the company\u2019s general meeting <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lynascorp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/191126-AGM-2019-Presentation.pdf\" >held on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are in various different negotiations with respect to funding and offtake for that plant. We do expect to have more announcements on that sometime in the next two to three months,&#8221; chief executive, Amanda Lacaze, added.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>The US has\u00a0stepped up efforts to ensure the supply of the critical minerals\u00a0from outside China, which currently accounts for 70% of the world&#8217;s production.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The facility would be the world\u2019s only large-scale producer<br \/>\nof separated medium and heavy rare earth products outside of China, which currently&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/china-kicks-off-national-survey-of-rare-earth-resources-amid-threats-of-supply-curbs\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">accounts for 70% of global production<\/a>. Beijing also controls<br \/>\n90% of a $4 billion global market for materials used in magnets and motors that<br \/>\npower phones, wind turbines, electric vehicles and military devices.<\/p>\n<p>Lynas, the only major rare earths producer outside China,<br \/>\ncurrently ships the ore it mines in Western Australia to its processing plant<br \/>\nin Malaysia. The facility not only does not have heavy rare earths separating<br \/>\ncapacity, but also continues to face challenges rooted in concerns expressed by<br \/>\nthe Malaysian government over low-level radioactive waste produced at the plant.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s six-year-old facility in the country \u2014 known<br \/>\nas the Lynas Advance Material Plant (LAMP) \u2014 has been the cause of ongoing<br \/>\ntension between Kuala Lumpur and the Sydney-based miner.<\/p>\n<p>LAMP was the centre of relentless attacks from environmental<br \/>\ngroups and local residents while under construction in 2012. They feared about<br \/>\nthe&nbsp;impact the low-level radioactive waste the refinery generates could<br \/>\nhave&nbsp;on the health of those living nearby, and to the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Scrutiny escalated last year, with the Malaysian government setting<br \/>\na committee to review Lynas\u2019 operations. Chief executive Amanda&nbsp;Lacaze&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/lynas-presses-malaysian-authorities-to-explain-plant-review-status\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raised concerns about the impartiality<\/a>&nbsp;of a couple of<br \/>\ncommittee members, as both are known for being long time opponents of having<br \/>\nthe refinery located in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the country&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/malaysia-tells-lynas-to-remove-radioactive-waste-for-licence-renewal\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ordered Lynas to remove 450,000&nbsp;tonnes of radioactive<br \/>\nwaste<\/a>&nbsp;stockpiled at its processing plant by Sept. 2., when the<br \/>\ncompany\u2019s licence was up for renewal. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/china-boosting-rree-production-1024x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1007669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/china-boosting-rree-production.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/china-boosting-rree-production-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/china-boosting-rree-production-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>The miner was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/malaysia-allows-lynas-to-continue-operating-rare-earths-plant-but-only-for-six-months\/\">granted six-month licence renewal<\/a> \u2014 shorter than the usual 3 years \u2014 under a number of conditions, including identifying Malaysia-approved site for a permanent disposal of low-level radioactive waste Lynas generates. Alternatively, the company would have to secure official written approval from a recipient country willing to take the waste, said the country\u2019s Atomic Energy Licensing Board&nbsp;(AELB), an agency under the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With Washington and Beijing locked in trade talks, there were fears that China may restrict access to the materials. Instead, the nation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/chinas-rare-earth-boost-threatens-us-australia-growth-plans\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">has been bulking up<\/a>, threatening efforts in the US and elsewhere to undercut the Asian giant\u2019s dominance in the rare earths market.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the world\u2019s second largest economy produced about<br \/>\n120,000 tonnes of rare earths, while the totals of the next two leading<br \/>\nproducers \u2014 Australia and the US \u2014 were 20,000 and 15,000 respectively.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Not so rare<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Despite their name,&nbsp;the 17 minerals grouped under the rare<br \/>\nearths label are not rare. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), they<br \/>\nare roughly as common as copper. But, because rare earth ores oxidize quickly,<br \/>\nextracting them is both difficult and extremely polluting.<\/p>\n<p>In the past three months, The Trump administration has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/us-steps-up-efforts-to-limit-chinas-control-of-critical-minerals\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stepped up efforts to ensure the supply of critical minerals<\/a>&nbsp;from<br \/>\noutside China. As part of those initiatives, it recently signed a memorandum of<br \/>\nunderstanding with Greenland to conduct a hyper-spectral survey to map the<br \/>\ncountry\u2019s geology.<\/p>\n<p>Washington has also gained the support of Australia, which&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/au.usembassy.gov\/white-house-statement-trump-turnbull-meeting-strengthens-alliance\/\" >has committed to facilitate potential joint ventures<\/a>&nbsp;to improve rare earth processing capacity and reduce reliance on Chinese rare earths. The mineral agencies of the both countries&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/australia-signs-critical-minerals-research-agreement-with-us\/\" >signed last week a research agreement<\/a>&nbsp;to quantify their reserves of critical mineral reserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Details about how it will fund the development of a heavy rare earths processing facility in Texas expected to come by the end of February.<\/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":[2849,949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151789"}],"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=1151789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1151904,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151789\/revisions\/1151904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1151789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1151789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1151789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}