PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Lynas on Monday said that it would seek clarification from the Malaysian government over comments made by Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad over the company’s continuation of operations.
Mohamad over the weekend noted that the Malaysian government had imposed an ‘extra condition’ on Lynas to remove waste, noting that the ‘waste’ could not go to Australia.
“So what we have done is we have opened up the business to other people, and there are other companies willing to buy up, or somehow or other, acquire Lynas; they have given us a promise that in future before sending the raw material to Lynas, they will clean it up first, they will crack it and decontaminate it in some way with regard to radioactivity, so that when the raw material comes here, the volume is less and the waste from that raw material is not dangerous to anybody,” the Prime Minister said.
The Atomic Energy Licensing Board has previously issued Lynas with two new preconditions for its licence renewal relating to the management of two residues produced by the Malaysian operation.
While the company has developed an action plan for one of the residues, it has appealed the condition related to the second.
Lynas on Monday noted that the company has, for some months, been developing detailed plans to grow with the market and deliver long-term shareholder value, while assisting to mitigate the risk from any regulatory changes in Malaysia.
“We see value in operating alternative cracking and leaching processing close to our resource. We will provide a further update on our plans and progress in the coming weeks,” the company said.