Lynas clears the air over Aussie NGO’s claims

Lynas says that the claims are a result of misinformation and poor understanding of facts.

PETALING JAYA: Lynas Corporation Ltd today stepped forward to clarify recent allegations by an Australian NGO pertaining to its permit approvals and the basis of its decision to build a rare earth refinery in Gebeng.

The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) submitted a referral to the Environmental Protection Authority (EOA) on Tuesday calling for Lynas’ “outdated” approvals to be reviewed.

ANAWA spokesman, Marcus Atkinson, later told FMT that Lynas’ approvals were 14 years old and that the Australian mining giant had originally applied to build a second processing plant in Meenar, Western Australia.

This plan, however, was shelved when the agreement was made with Malaysia to build the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng instead.

Atkinson also said that ANAWA believed Lynas picked Malaysia to “save money” and operate under less stringent laws.

In an official statement to FMT today, Lynas disputed the allegations, saying that Gebeng was chosen as the site for the RM2.5 billion plant for business reasons.

Its general counsel, Andrew Arnold, explained that approvals were obtained in the 1990s for a rare earth mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld in Western Australia and a rare earth secondary processing plant at Meenar.

“As Lynas has stated publicly, the 1990s approvals are clear evidence that a plant equivalent to the LAMP had already been approved in Western Australia,” he said.

“A business decision was made to locate the secondary proposed processing plant at Gebeng in Malaysia. The approval processes for Meenar and Western Australia are separate processes.”

Business reasons
Emphasing that Gebeng was chosen for business reasons, Arnold stated that the area has an established industrial estate with the key infrastructure, support industries and skilled workforce required for the LAMP.

He added that there was no industrial estate in Western Australia that offers all the advantages of the Gebeng industrial estate.

“Malaysia’s laws concerning radiation are equivalent to, and in some cases, stricter than international standards,” Arnold said.

He dismissed speculation that ANAWA’s claims would have an impact on the legality of the LAMP arrangements between Australia and Malaysia or the temporary operating licence for the LAMP.

“Any such claims demonstrate a lack of understanding of the relevant approval processes and the facts,” he said.

Arnold also rejected Kuantan MP, Fuziah Salleh’s, reference to Lynas’ “irresponsible and unethical” plan to dilute the radioactive waste, declassify it from being labelled as radioactive and dispose of it as commercial items.

“Lynas had never planned or intended any dilution of the waste,” he stated. “All co-products from the LAMP are a result of sustainable processes of rare earth extraction adapted to the very low activity of Mount Weld ore resulting in the production of a low activity gypsum co-product.”