Ann: Malaysian Operating Licence Update, page-56

From AUST Business today:
LYNAS TO BATTLE RESTRICTIONS ON ITS MALAYSIAN RARE EARTHS PLANT
Amanda Hodge
Australian rare earths miner Lynas will take legal action over changes to its Malaysian operating licence that require it to move all refining of radioactive materials offshore after its second appeal against those changes was rejected.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed at the weekend that Lynas had been granted a further six months – until January 2024 – to comply with new licence conditions for its Pahang rare earths plant.
But his government dismissed the company’s appeal against changes to its licence conditions, which Lynas argued had materially altered the viability of its Malaysian operations.
Lynas confirmed the extension in a statement on Monday that said it would pursue “legal avenues for review” of the amended licence conditions “which limit operations at the Lynas Malaysia facility (and) represent a significant variation from the conditions under which Lynas made the initial decision to invest in Malaysia”.
“Lynas has made significant investments in its Malaysian facility and will seek review through these processes in respect of the conditions to ensure that Lynas is treated fairly and equitably as a Foreign Direct Investor and as a significant employer and contributor to the Malaysian economy,” the statement said.
Lynas Malaysia’s operating licence was renewed for three years in February on condition it moves all “cracking and leaching” of lanthanide concentrate to a site outside of Malaysia by July 1, and refine only intermediate materials at its facility at Gebeng in Pahang.
The new conditions – which also banned the import of lanthanide concentrate – were imposed because of local concerns that the process leached radioactive material into groundwater and posed a health hazard to surrounding communities.
Lynas disputes those claims, insisting the plant has no impact on normally occurring radioactivity levels around Gebeng.
It warned the July 1 deadline would force a temporary shutdown or slowdown of its Malaysia operations while it worked to bring online a new rare earth processing facility in the West Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie, which it expects to be up and running in the fourth quarter of the 2023 financial year.
On Monday, Lynas acknowledged the government extension “will remove the requirement for a shutdown at the Lynas Malaysia plant prior to 1 January 2024”. Lynas shares surged 12 per cent on the news to close at $7.37.
But, Lynas added, the new licensing conditions went against the recommendations of the Malaysian government’s 2018 Executive Review Committee report on Lynas Malaysia’s operations, the Atomic Energy Licensing Board’s own audits of those operations as well as three previous independent expert scientific reviews.
The Pahang rare earth processing facility is the world’s largest outside China and seen as critical in securing continuity of supply for minerals required in the manufacture of electronic equipment including smart phones, super magnets, electric vehicles and military assets.
Opposition parties, industry and diplomatic officials had all lobbied Malaysia’s Science Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang to reverse its new conditions to ensure Lynas would not have to shut down its operations, which account for half of the world’s rare earth supply outside China. China controls 80 per cent of the world’s production of rare earth minerals.