Good to see that SMSL are law abiding citizens who speak on...

Good to see that SMSL are law abiding citizens who speak on behalf of all Malaysians.


Fight Against Lynas Malaysian Plant Escalates, Opponents to File Injunction

By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | September 7, 2012 12:27 PM EST


As expected, opponents to the rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp in Malaysia vowed to continue their fight against the presence of the facility until the Australian miner packs up and leaves shores.


As expected, opponents to the rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp in Malaysia vowed to continue their fight against the presence of the facility until the Australian miner packs up and leaves shores. Challengers vowed they will elevate the matter to the High Court by filing a legal injunction.

Challengers vowed they will elevate the matter to the High Court by filing a legal injunction.

"The world will witness one of the biggest civil disobedience events in this nation," Wong Tack, chairman of the group, Himpunan Hijau, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.

Mr Tack said their group will block the port in the Malaysian town of Kuantan, where the plant is located, once Lynas starts shipping in from Australia its raw rare earths materials.

"We are prepared to paralyze the whole port until the raw materials leave our port," Mr Tack said. "We need to send the strongest warning to Lynas - don't even dream about operation. This is an all-out war."

Tan Bun Teet, chairman of the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL), said they were surprised when they learned that Malaysia's Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) had released the highly controversial temporary operating license (TOL) to Lynas despite two impending judicial reviews and an appeal case for judicial review.

"We are appalled by the government's action. The government has lost the very last little bit of credibility left and may have acted in contempt of court as a result," he said in www.aliran.com.

SMSL said in a statement it will file for a legal injunction against Lynas to prevent the miner from operating the rare earths processing plant until all court proceedings have been concluded.

On Wednesday, the AELB finally decided to release the two-year TOL to the Australian rare earths miner saying the company had met all technical and regulatory requirements. The board approved the license in January.

For its part, Lynas said it would continue to address the "principal cause of the community anxiety," that of which is what to do with the radioactive byproducts from the plant.

It had said earlier that it would turn the material into "processed co-products" for use specially in manufacturing, like materials for constructing roads and buildings. The materials would be exported from Malaysia, the company said.

Lynas targets to churn out 22,000 metric tonnes of rare earths annually after reaching full capacity late in 2013. It is believed that Lynas can contribute up to one-sixth of the world's supply of rare earths.

"The entrance of Lynas into production is likely to lead to a global surplus for most light rare-earth elements and we believe it is likely prices will continue to weaken over the near term, with very limited engagement currently from buyers," UBS analyst Ben Wilson told The Wall Street Journal.