{"id":1154388,"date":"2019-12-09T05:31:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1008757"},"modified":"2019-12-09T05:31:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:31:07","slug":"rare-earth-miner-lynas-picks-kalgoorlie-for-processing-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1154388","title":{"rendered":"Rare earth miner Lynas picks Kalgoorlie for processing plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC)&nbsp;has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynascorp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191209-Lynas-Selects-Kalgoorlie.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">selected the city of Kalgoorlie to build its new cracking and leaching plant<\/a> to extract low-level radioactivity from the ore mined at its Mt Weld operation, which is then shipped to Malaysia for final treatment.<\/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>The world\u2019s only major producer of rare earths outside China<br \/>\nsaid planned to begin building the plant, which will perform the first step of<br \/>\nconcentrate processing, in 2021. Completion is expected late 2022 or early 2023,<br \/>\nit said.<\/p>\n<p>The decision is a further step towards delivering on the Australian Government\u2019s Critical Minerals Strategy and the objective of the Western Australian Government for more downstream processing, Lynas <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lynascorp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191209-Lynas-Selects-Kalgoorlie.pdf\" >said in the statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Plant will remove low-level radioactivity from rare earths concentrate Lynas ships to Malaysia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The miner also said it planned to explore opportunities for<br \/>\nthe next stage of rare earth processing (upstream solvent extraction) in<br \/>\nWestern Australia. <\/p>\n<p>Lynas, which controls just over 10% of the global rare earths market, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lynas-close-to-securing-funding-for-rare-earths-plant-in-the-us\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said last month<\/a> it was fine-tuning funding plans to build&nbsp;a&nbsp;separation plant in Texas.<\/p>\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<br \/>\ncurrently&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<br \/>\ncontrols 90% of a $4 billion global market for materials used in magnets and<br \/>\nmotors that power phones, wind turbines, electric vehicles and military<br \/>\ndevices.<\/p>\n<p>After relentless attacks in Malaysia from environmental groups and locals fearing the&nbsp;effects of radioactive waste generated by Lynas\u2019 refinery, the miner agreed to relocate it to Western Australia by 2025. The deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/malaysia-tells-lynas-to-remove-radioactive-waste-for-licence-renewal\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">was a condition imposed by the Southeast Asian country<\/a> to renew Lynas operating licence.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their name,&nbsp;the 17 minerals used in magnets and<br \/>\nmotors that power phones, wind turbines, electric vehicles and military devices<br \/>\nare not rare. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), they are roughly as<br \/>\ncommon as copper. But, because rare earth ores oxidize quickly, extracting them<br \/>\nis 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,<br \/>\nwhich&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/au.usembassy.gov\/white-house-statement-trump-turnbull-meeting-strengthens-alliance\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">has committed to facilitate potential joint ventures<\/a>&nbsp;to<br \/>\nimprove rare earth processing capacity and reduce reliance on Chinese rare<br \/>\nearths. The mineral agencies of the both countries&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/australia-signs-critical-minerals-research-agreement-with-us\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signed last week a research agreement<\/a>&nbsp;to quantify<br \/>\ntheir reserves of critical mineral reserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The plant will perform the first step of processing rare earths from its Mt Weld mine, which had been shipped to Malaysia.<\/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":"default","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":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","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-opacity":"","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-opacity":"","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-opacity":"","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-opacity":"","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-opacity":"","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-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369,2857,2640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1154388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-markets","category-miningcom","category-suppliers-equipment","category-top-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=1154388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154389,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154388\/revisions\/1154389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1154388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1154388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1154388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}