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17.2.2021

2.39 pm

Lynas surges on Chinese threats

ByColin Kruger

Lynas cracked through $6 today for the first time in seven years after theFinancial Timesreported that China is exploring whether it can hurt U.S. defence contractors by limiting supplies of rare-earth minerals. Shares were as much as 11.9 per cent higher at $6.03 in afternoon trading.

Industry executives said government officials had asked them how badly companies in the U.S. and Europe would be affected if China restricted rare-earth exports during a bilateral dispute, theFTreported.

Lynas’ rare earths mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia.CREDIT:TREVOR COLLENS

China, which controls 80 percent of rare earths supply globally, has been threatening the supply of rare earths since a trade dispute with the US escalated in 2019.

Lynas is one of the only rare earths producers that operates independently of China.

The term rare earths refers to a group of 17 elements crucial to the manufacture of many hi-tech products like mobile phones, electric cars, wind turbines and it has military applications too.

These elements are not actually that rare in nature but the extraction process is environmentally hazardous.

Wesfarmers attempted a takeover of Lynas in 2019 at $2.25 a share when the future of its processing plant in Malaysia was under a cloud.

Lynas has since announced plans to set up a plant in Western Australia to handle some of the more hazardous processing of rare earths.

The US Department of Defense has also helped to fund plans to set up processing plants in the US to alleviate the country’s reliance supplies from China. News of US government funding has helped Lynas double its share price from $2.84 at the start of November last year.