Ann: Lynas Appeals Malaysian Licence Conditions, page-11

I find it interesting when 18 months ago I said this plant was in trouble and would be late, way over budget, I was booed and called many names. Now many of My loudest critics are crying that they did not get an extension.

This was not caused by Malaysia. It was caused by AL and her team not being able to complete KAL "on time and in budget".
If you look back 3 years ago the company was very glad to receive this contract with it stipulations. It was the failure to Complete KAL that caused the problems
Press release 27 Feb, 2020. https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/LYC/02207510.pdf

This was almost a year after the 2019 plan they had lots of time to fully scope the project.

They were already ordering kiln and other parts as told by AL in June 2020 Q report https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/LYC/02257313.pdf,
Should they not have known by then when KAL would have been done and negotiated for a period 6 moths beyond that to stop shipments.

Last point when KAM Left Who did they put in charge? POL! who was busy running sales and marketing and doing a good job. He has no experience in managing large construction projects and this was already in trouble. Yet another case of AL not realizing what she is up against. My guess she still does not know accurately when it will be done. If she did, her best course of action is go to Malaysia and come clean and say we can stop on this date what can we do between now and then to keep us open. Humble approaches always work better than threats.

Just my guess if she was specific about when they wanted an extension to. The government would work with them to keep them open. She will never get an open ended extension. Or the requirements entirely removed.