Lynas Rare Earths has been granted a six-month extension for processing lanthanide concentrate in Malaysia, effectively plugging the gap in the company’s rare earth supply.
Last month, Lynas appealed to the Malaysian Government about unfavourable license conditions that threatened to interrupt its operations.
The license conditions on the company’s Malaysian operations prohibit the import and processing of lanthanide, which will require the closure of the cracking and leaching component of the company’s Malaysia plant.
Lynas said it appealed the conditions on the basis that they represent a significant variation from the conditions under which it made the initial decision to invest in Malaysia.
The new conditions were due to come into effect from July 1, but have now been extended to January 1 2024.
Cracking and leaching leaves behind low-level radioactive waste, which the Malaysian Government seems no longer willing to tolerate.
Although the Government refused to budge on the conditions themselves, the adjusted timeframe means Lynas can continue to its lanthanide operations up until 2024, effectively plugging a gap in its rare earth supply.
Lynas has been racing to ramp up its Kalgoorlie rare earths processing facility which, when complete, will undertake the cracking and leaching of rare earths before sending the intermediate product to Malaysia.
“Planning for feed-on and production ramp up continues with a focus by the Lynas Kalgoorlie operational team on learning from the significant expertise of the Lynas Malaysia team in all aspects of cracking and leaching operations,” the company said.
As the Kalgoorlie expansion won’t be on its feet until at least August, the company faced a potential three-month void of rare earth supply.
But with the extension of Lynas’ Malaysian license, that issue has now been resolved.