Group braces for possible rare earth production halt in Malaysia.
Lynas on Monday reported figures for the six months ended December 2022 (PDF). The Australian mining group’s profit fell slightly year-on-year from the equivalent of $105,38 million to €100,82 million, while revenue rose from $211,44million to $248,52 million. Lynas CEO Amanda Lacaze said the figures were strong even in the face of water supply problems at the processing plant in Malaysia and rising production costs.
The most important producer of rare earths outside China also provided information on Monday about progress in the construction of the first processing plant for this group of raw materials in Australia, although it did not give a specific date for commissioning. So it remains to be seen whether the company will be able to solve the most pressing problem at the moment, as parts of the reprocessing process are banned in Malaysia as of July. The splitting and leaching processes leave low-level radioactive residues, which the company is then prohibited from storing. The company has appealed against these requirements.
Meanwhile, Lacaze ruled out turning to China for reprocessing should it not have its own capacity available by then, as reported by Australian Financial Review. Rather, stockpiles of all intermediate rare earth beneficiation products would be built up to serve customers.
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