"Lynas expects to receive a preliminary operating licence from the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) before September which will be renewed as a full license after three years should the plant comply to agreed standards."
Judging by the comments to date the local punters remain unimpressed (particularly liked the comment about NC's alien connections. Chihawk, you will have to quizz him on that one next opportunity - LOL):
"Hellooooo, getting an x-ray is a choice. getting bombarded by radioactivity 24/7 from Lynas is not a choice issue la. If Nick is so cocksure all is well, please move your entire family to Gebeng, if the place is not so habitable, the Club Med is next door. I am sure your entire family will be happy there.
If this is such a good deal, why not do it in Australia? The answer is simple, the Australians will never let Lynas set up a refinery there. So Lynas comes to Malaysia and use their "I am gwailo, I know better" attitude and somehow kowtim our regulators and politicians. UMNO BN shoud wake up. Isn't this the neo-colonialism that you always harp about? Instead UMNO BN is rolling out the red carpet for Lynas, getting the authorities to defend Lynas, getting the media on Lynas's side. Shouldn't the government protect the Malaysian people?
Attracting more investments into Gebeng...hmmm, Gebeng Industrial park will be hit with this slogan "Get 12 years tax break and move next to a slightly radioactive site".
Let's look into Lynas itself and you will see that it has zero experience in rare earth mining or refining...or even for the matter any sort of mining activities. We are not talking about Rio Tinto here, this is a speculative start up company.
Lynas claims to have some green technology but the only people refining rare earth are in China for the past 30 years. So how did Lynas "developed" their green technology? Do they have a operational refinery to verify their claims? NO. Do they have the technical experience running a rare earth refinery plant? NO. Unless some alien being gifted Nick Curtis a technology, please tell us how you developed your green technology without ever owning and running a plant?
If you are refining something non-radioactive, Malaysians will have no issue what technology you deploy. But if you are doing something radioactive, for God's sake, Lynas better be damn cocksure that their technology works and the plant is safe.
So how do we know whether Lynas plant is safe?
Because Lynas says so and because Malaysian govt says so. Can they prove it? They can't. This is radioactive stuff la brother. Can Lynas and Malaysian government be more serious? It is not only the health of the people are in jeopardy; property values around there, the goods manufactured there will all be affected. Say you are manufacturing seafood next to a slightly radioactive plant, don't you think your food sales will be severely impaired. If Lynas starts, we can expect slightly radioactive salted fish from Kuantan.
Bottom line: Kuantan people do not trust Lynas and we do not trust our government. The solution is simple.
Let's be logical and reasonable here. If Lynas wants to do business peacefully in Kuantan, Lynas should first stop work and pay for 3 independent studies on the technical capability of Lynas, on the environmental and health impact and the socio-economic impact on Kuantan and Pahang. Lynas gets to nominate 1 research paper, Sahabat Alam/WWF to nominate 1 research paper and people of Kuantan nominate 1 research paper. After the 3 papers are done, people of Kuantan can then have “free prior informed choice” to choose to support Lynas or not.
We the people of Kuantan hereby strongly urge Lynas should stop work and start engaging the Kuantan community. Lynas should act like a corporation that cares about its community. This is not some small issue, this is about a radioactive plant! "
LYC Price at posting:
$2.55 Sentiment: ST Sell Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)