PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths miner Lynas has temporarily suspended production at its Malaysian plant, as the Malaysian government tightened control as the Covid-19 cases escalate.
Lynas on Monday said that as part of the temporary plant shutdown to care-and-maintenance mode, the company has retained some work-in-progress inventory that would allow the plant to restart quickly.
“We commence this temporary shutdown in a strong cash position and we are able to avoid a significant majority of our costs under this shutdown scenario,” the company told shareholders.
“The Lynas cash balance on December 31 was A$111.8-million and Lynas currently expects to achieve positive cash flow from operations during the March quarter, before payment of approximately A$14-million relating to the permanent disposal facility project. This positions us well to quickly resume satisfying our customers’ need upon restart of the plant.”
Operations at Mt Weld, in Western Australia, will continue uninterrupted.