{"id":1160534,"date":"2020-01-17T08:40:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T14:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1011537"},"modified":"2020-01-17T08:40:29","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T14:40:29","slug":"lynas-rare-earth-licence-renewal-in-malaysia-challenged-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1160534","title":{"rendered":"Lynas\u2019 rare earth licence renewal in Malaysia challenged in court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynascorp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200117-Litigation-in-Malaysia-2020269.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said Friday<\/a> that three individuals in Malaysia had filed a lawsuit challenging the government&#8217;s decision to renew the company\u2019s operating licence last year.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\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 miner, the world\u2019s only major producer of rare earths outside China, isn\u2019t the only one being sued. Other targeted people include the Prime Minister of Malaysia, 27 other Ministers and Cabinet members, the Government of Malaysia and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynascorp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/200117-Litigation-in-Malaysia-2020269.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Lynas said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The court case questions the processes followed by the<br \/>\ngovernment in reaching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/malaysia-allows-lynas-to-continue-operating-rare-earths-plant-but-only-for-six-months\/\">its<br \/>\nAugust decision<\/a> to allow the miner to continue operating in the country,<br \/>\nunder certain conditions, , including identifying a Malaysia-approved site for<br \/>\na permanent disposal of the waste Lynas generates at its plant.<\/p>\n<p>The Sydney-based miner agreed to start extracting low-level<br \/>\nradioactivity from the ore mined at its Mt. Weld operation, before shipping it<br \/>\nto Malaysia for final treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The cracking and leaching plant, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/rare-earth-miner-lynas-picks-kalgoorlie-for-processing-plant\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">to be built this year in Kalgoorie<\/a>, Australia, will perform the first step of concentrate processing in 2021. The facility is expected to be completed in late 2022 or early 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Lynas said at the time it planned to explore opportunities<br \/>\nfor the next stage of rare earth processing (upstream solvent extraction) in<br \/>\nWestern Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The company, which controls just over 10% of the global rare earths market,\u00a0has also revealed plans to <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)\">build\u00a0a\u00a0separation plant in the United States<\/a>.<\/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>The series of announcement came after increased opposition<br \/>\nand scrutiny to its Lynas Advance Material Plant (LAMP)&nbsp;in Malaysia. Environmental<br \/>\ngroups and local residents&nbsp;feared about the&nbsp;impact the low-level<br \/>\nradioactive waste the refinery generates could have&nbsp;on the health of those<br \/>\nliving nearby, and to the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Lynas said its Malaysian subsidiary and LAMP have been the<br \/>\nsubject of four independent scientific reviews, including two probes by the<br \/>\nInternational Atomic Energy (IAEA) and a report by the current Pakatan Harapan<br \/>\nGovernment\u2019s independent scientific committee. All of them, it said, have concluded<br \/>\nthat Lynas Malaysia is low risk and compliant with the country\u2019s laws and<br \/>\nregulations in effect.<\/p>\n<p>The company will face the fresh case against it in Jan. 21,<br \/>\nit said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawsuit challenges the Malasian government&#8217;s decision to renew the company&rsquo;s operating licence last year.<\/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":[949,369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160534"}],"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=1160534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160604,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160534\/revisions\/1160604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1160534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1160534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1160534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}