An Australian academician and journalist has pointed out the contradiction of Lynas in applying to the Australian authorities to return the wastes from its rare earths refinery at Gebeng, despite repeatedly claiming that the wastes can be turned into commercially safe products.
"Given the company's optimistic plans to produce gypsum, it is hard to understand why in March this year it applied to the South Australian government to import wastes from the refinery back into Australia," says Wendy Bacon in a report published in New Matilda, an Australian news website.
Bacon, a professor and award-winning investigative journalist who heads the journalism programme at the University of Technology, Sydney, revealed that Australian senator Joe Ludwig, speaking on behalf of the health minister, said on Oct 30 that an application from Lynas was being considered by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa).
Ludwig was reported to have said that Arpansa on April 2 requested more information from Lynas, but the Australian miner had yet to respond and the application could not progress until the information requested was received.
Lynas has claimed that the wastes from its rare earths refinery can be completely converted into a commercially safe product called "synthetic aggregate" that it would market internationally. The plant to convert the wastes has been built in the refinery, it said, and it was now ready for operation.
However, no detail on the conversion plan has been released so far.
"Given the company's optimistic plans to produce gypsum, it is hard to understand why in March this year it applied to the South Australian government to import wastes from the refinery back into Australia," says Wendy Bacon in a report published in New Matilda, an Australian news website.
Bacon, a professor and award-winning investigative journalist who heads the journalism programme at the University of Technology, Sydney, revealed that Australian senator Joe Ludwig, speaking on behalf of the health minister, said on Oct 30 that an application from Lynas was being considered by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa).Ludwig was reported to have said that Arpansa on April 2 requested more information from Lynas, but the Australian miner had yet to respond and the application could not progress until the information requested was received.
Lynas has claimed that the wastes from its rare earths refinery can be completely converted into a commercially safe product called "synthetic aggregate" that it would market internationally. The plant to convert the wastes has been built in the refinery, it said, and it was now ready for operation.
However, no detail on the conversion plan has been released so far.
Wastes transforming not yet done with rare earth
Bacon said Lynas has announced that the wastes would be transformed into synthetic gypsum for road building and other projects.
This process, she said, was being successfully used in the oil and gas industries, but was yet to be carried out in the rare earths industry.
She quoted a Lynas spokesperson as saying, "Lots of work has been done by a whole bunch of academic and commercial organisations as to whether this residual material is capable of being used in this work... They are all very confident it will work."
The spokesperson also claimed that Lyas has already had expressions of interest but he could not "say one way or the other... everything these guys say or do is blown up and is capable of being taken out of context".
Bacan reported that Lynas had planned to sell at least some of the gypsum in Malaysia, but if it was rejected by the Malaysian government, it would pursue customers in Indonesia, the United States and Australia.
However the company's spokesperson declined to give further details on this matter.
On the moving of more than 100 containers containing rare earths ore from Kuantan Port to the refinery on the night of Nov 21, the spokesperson told Bacon that the arrival of the containers was kept secret because of threats by green groups to blockade the shipment.
He also claimed that the police escort, which has been criticised by anti-Lynas groups as an abuse of the police force, was arranged by the local authorities and that there was no request from Lynas.
Asked whether there were plans for safely decommissioning the plant, the spokesperson told Bacon that the issue was really "academic" because there were enough raw materials to keep the plant operating for 50 years.
Bacon pointed out that Lynas has previously talked about a 20-year lifespan for the plant, and if it operates for longer than that, the amount of radioactive wastes discharged, which can last for hundreds of years, would be much greater.
"Even if the plan to process the wastes into secondary products is successful, there is no guarantee an export market for synthetic gypsum will be stable," she warned.
She quoted a Lynas spokesperson as saying, "Lots of work has been done by a whole bunch of academic and commercial organisations as to whether this residual material is capable of being used in this work... They are all very confident it will work."
The spokesperson also claimed that Lyas has already had expressions of interest but he could not "say one way or the other... everything these guys say or do is blown up and is capable of being taken out of context".
Bacan reported that Lynas had planned to sell at least some of the gypsum in Malaysia, but if it was rejected by the Malaysian government, it would pursue customers in Indonesia, the United States and Australia.
However the company's spokesperson declined to give further details on this matter.
On the moving of more than 100 containers containing rare earths ore from Kuantan Port to the refinery on the night of Nov 21, the spokesperson told Bacon that the arrival of the containers was kept secret because of threats by green groups to blockade the shipment.He also claimed that the police escort, which has been criticised by anti-Lynas groups as an abuse of the police force, was arranged by the local authorities and that there was no request from Lynas.
Asked whether there were plans for safely decommissioning the plant, the spokesperson told Bacon that the issue was really "academic" because there were enough raw materials to keep the plant operating for 50 years.
Bacon pointed out that Lynas has previously talked about a 20-year lifespan for the plant, and if it operates for longer than that, the amount of radioactive wastes discharged, which can last for hundreds of years, would be much greater.
"Even if the plan to process the wastes into secondary products is successful, there is no guarantee an export market for synthetic gypsum will be stable," she warned.
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