High Court lifts suspension on Lynas licence

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — A Kuantan court lifted today the suspension on Lynas Corp Ltd’s licence to operate a controversial rare earth plant there but will still hear judicial reviews to permanently block production, activists said.

With the interim stay lifted, the Australian miner can now ship in rare earth ore to be processed at its RM2.5 billion plant in Pahang, paving the way for the company to begin operations despite public opposition to the project.

The High Court rejected today the application by Kuantan-based grassroots movement Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) for a permanent stay on the temporary operating licence (TOL) awarded the miner earlier this year while it decides a judicial review aimed at permanently blocking production at the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP).

“Lynas can bring in the ore,” SMSL president Tan Bun Teet told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

However, he believes that Lynas will wait for the court to dispose of SMSL’s formal application to be dealt with before bringing in the ore.

“I presume Lynas will wait for our formal application to be disposed of because if the ship is halfway here, it may be stuck in the high seas,” he said, referring to the possibility that the court could reinstate a stay against the miner.

Tan (picture), who attended this morning’s hearing, said the court had decided against extending an interim stay order against the TOL — which expires today — pending the judicial review and asked SMSL to file a formal application if it wanted to do so.

The court also allowed Lynas to be made a party in suit by SMSL against the government, SMSL’s lawyer Hon Kai Ping told The Malaysian Insider.

SMSL wanted the court to suspend the licence for the Australian firm until two judicial review cases challenging the government’s decision to grant the licence.

Tan said the group regretted the High Court’s decision today to lift the suspension on Lynas, saying the judge should have exercised caution instead.

He said SMSL will be filing an appeal for a permanent stay pending the disposal of the judicial review as well as a formal application for another interim stay order, as the judge had requested.

The court had turned down SMSL’s bid to extend the interim stay because it was made verbally instead of in writing, he said.

Lynas shares were placed on a trading halt earlier today pending a decision by the High Court relating to its temporary operating licence for the plant in Gebeng, international news wire Reuters reported.

Its rare earth plant — the biggest outside China — has been ready to fire up since early May, but the company has been embroiled in environmental and safety disputes with local residents since construction began two years ago.

Plans to start operations in September last year were scuppered when Putrajaya bowed to public pressure last April and put the project on ice pending a review by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In July last year, Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) adopted 11 recommendations set out by the review of the refinery and said it would not allow Lynas to begin operations or import rare earth ore until all conditions, which include a comprehensive, long-term and detailed plan for managing radioactive waste, were met.

Lynas Corp failed to meet any of the conditions in its first proposals, according to the regulator.

The Sydney-based company is looking to break China’s 90 per cent grip on rare earth metals crucial to the manufacture of high technology products such as smartphones, energy-efficient light bulbs and fuel-saving cars.