todays chart, page-1436

I found this published on another site and the poster at one time contributed to HC under the name "opaline"... This is an excellent summary concerning Lynas and the Malaysian RE/radio activity issue. BTW Bukit Merah is what you are referencing and while Mitsubishi operated the plant from 1982 to 1994, they are "quietly" cleaning up the former refinery...

Anyway thanks to opaline:

"I am a geologist by profession and I have worked in the Laverton area where Lynas' Mt Weld mine is located.

I first invested in Lynas quite a few years ago because their Mt Weld rare earth deposit was unusual in a number of aspects. Firstly it is unusually large and rich in rare earths. Secondly, the deposit is close to the surface where it can be easily and safely mined and where it can be measured at low cost. Thirdly, the deposit has unusually high concentrations of rare earth elements and the light and heavy rare earths have been naturally partially separated into different levels. Fourthly, the natural processes that concentrated the rare earths have very largely separated out radioactive uranium and thorium.

Even after Lynas has concentrated their rare earth minerals at the Mt Weld treatment plant, their product is still officially classified as non radioactive by the Australian nuclear regulator. At the Malaysian rare earth refinery, all products have very low radioactivity. Even so, there are extensive monitoring and storage mechanisms in place to ensure the plant operates safely.

It's absolutely true that Bukit Mera was an environmental disaster but the Lynas Refinery is not at all like Bukit Bera. Lynas takes a non radioactive concentrate and employs processes that avoid concentrating any naturally occurring low level radioactivity. Bukit Mera processed different minerals as well as waste from tin refining operations. Some Bukit Mera raw materials were already radioactive and the processing used there further concentrated that radioactivity. By contrast, the processes used by Lynas have been designed to avoid concentrating any radioactivity.

We need to bear in mind that thorium is a widespread, weakly radioactive element. Its radioactivity is a similar order of magnitude to potassium, a substance used every day by every living thing on our planet. Most soils contain thorium averaging about 6 parts per million while the common rock granite typically contains about 17 parts per million of thorium. A granite kitchen bench top is very likely to be more radioactive than any of the products produced by Lynas in Malaysia.

Disclosure: The writer holds shares in Lynas corporation but has never been employed by Lynas either directly or indirectly."

http://rightnow.org.au/opinion-3/rare-earth-mining/