PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths miner Lynas on Friday announced that it has started implementing a programme to reduce operating costs and expenditure in response to the subdued rare earths market.
The miner said that it was also optimising production at the Phase 1 capacity of its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) in Malaysia, which has a nominal capacity of 11 000 t/y of rare-earth oxides.
The company said that it would continue at this level until higher market prices were reached.
Despite the current macroeconomic environment, Lynas remained confident that rare-earth demand would grow at above-gross domestic product rates over the medium term, driven by increases in demand from key sectors.
Lynas on Friday also reported that the cracking and leaching unit of the Lamp had achieved 100% of its 11 000 t/y Phase 1 nameplate production capacity, and noted that ongoing rates of production in the separation and production finishing units would be determined according to the rate of product approval by customers, and by the market demand.
The Phase 2 expansion of the concentration plant at Mount Weld was also completed, and the plant was producing at capacity, Lynas said.
Meanwhile, the construction and the pre-commissioning of the Phase 2 at Lamp was near completion, and the kilns were currently being heated-up for commissioning.