Malaysiakini today: Govt expected to renew Lynas’ licence with...

Malaysiakini today:
Govt expected to renew Lynas’ licence with Harapan-era conditions
Low Choon Chyuan Published: Feb 11
The government is expected to renew the licence for Lynas to continue operating its processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan. The license is set to expire on March 2. However, sources familiar with the matter told Malaysiakini it is likely that the firm must abide by the two key conditions set by the Pakatan Harapan government in 2019.
One of the conditions is to relocate the “cracking and leaching” facility, which produces radioactive Water Leach Purification (WLP) residue, out of Malaysia before July 2023. Since it was set up in 2012, Harapan leaders had objected to the plant but former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration renewed the licence with conditions after the coalition won the 2018 general election.
This put Harapan parties, especially DAP, in an awkward position as it previously demanded the BN government to shut down the rare earth processing plant. For example, former environment minister Yeo Bee Yin, who is a DAP lawmaker, expressed disappointment over the matter in her book ‘The Unfinished Business’. She dedicated an entire chapter to how she was forced to amend the licence condition from “moving out the radioactive waste” to “constructing a ‘cracking and leaching’ facility elsewhere”.

The licence for Lynas has become a hot potato subject for Harapan and the new Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang from PKR when the coalition returned to power after forming an alliance with BN last November.

US wants Lynas to keep operating Sources claimed that the minister, who is a PKR vice-president, and the cabinet are caught between a rock and a hard place, having to manage between pressure from foreign powers and the expectations within PKR as well as from voters.

One source close to the government told Malaysiakini that the United States, Australian, and Japanese governments are “concerned” about whether the licence would be renewed. A month after Chang became minister, US ambassador to Malaysia Brian D McFeeters visited the ministry and had a meeting with the latter.
Two sources confirmed that McFeeters lobbied the government to renew Lynas’ license.