PETALING JAYA: Australian rare earths producer Lynas has announced that it plans to temporarily shut down all its operations in Malaysia, except its mixed rare earth carbonate processing plant, from mid-November.
“During the shutdown, key personnel from the Malaysian cracking and leaching plant will be deployed to assist with the start-up process in Kalgoorlie, Australia,” it said in its latest quarterly report, released today.
A Lynas Malaysia spokesman said the shutdown is only temporary.
In April, Lynas had said it planned to either temporarily shut down its Malaysian operations or have a period of very low production if licence conditions prohibiting the import and processing of lanthanide concentrate remained.
On May 9, science, technology and innovation minister Chang Lih Kang said he would not change his decision to reject Lynas’ appeal to remove the four licensing conditions set by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board.
The ministry convened a closed-door tribunal on April 28 to discuss the appeal to remove the four conditions introduced in March 2020, which had prohibited the import and processing of rare earth elements.
The primary condition is that Lynas must relocate the cracking and leaching of lanthanide concentrate to a site outside Malaysia and only refine intermediate materials at its facility in Gebeng, Pahang, by July 1.
This led to Lynas filing two applications for judicial review of its operating licence conditions in Malaysia in July.
In its quarterly report, Lynas also said it intends to upgrade its downstream operations in Malaysia to boost neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) production capacity to approximately 10,500 tonnes per annum.
Lynas said if its operating licence is updated to allow the continued import and processing of lanthanide concentrate, it will also undertake maintenance work on the cracking and leaching facility. - FMT
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