Lynas Malaysia managing director and vice president Mashal Ahmad said Western Australia's refusal to accept waste from overseas is not specific to the company.
He said this in reference to Australian media reports that the Western Australian government won't accept the import of Lynas' Water Leech Purification (WLP) waste into the state due to laws that rule out accepting mine waste from overseas.
"Malaysia has similar laws that prevent the import of waste from raw materials that have undergone value-added processing overseas.
"It is incorrect to suggest that the Western Australian government’s decision is related to Lynas material only, or that Australia will not allow rare earth processing plants," he said in a statement today.
He noted Australian media reports that the Western Australian government was open to discussing a proposal for rare earth processing in Western Australia.
"Lynas recently stated it is considering alternative cracking and leaching processing close to its mine in Western Australia, and the company has previously received approval to process its the material in Australia," he said.
Lynas has recently explored partially processing the rare earth it mines from Mount Weld in Western Australia before transporting to Malaysia, to avoid further build-up of waste at its Kuantan plant.
Putrajaya had said it will not allow unlimited accumulation of waste at Lynas' facility in Kuantan.
Lynas is trying to commercialise the existing waste in Kuantan, but it is not yet clear if they will get government approval.
If they fail to get approval, Lynas will need to explore other ways to address the existing waste, including the construction of a permanent waste disposal facility.
Up to December last year, the accumulated WLP residue at Lynas' facility was 451,564 tonnes, while the NUF waste amounted to 1.113 million tonnes. - Mkini
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