The chair of SMSL has posted the following on his Facebook page (translated in Google translate):
“At the cabinet meeting two weeks ago, the overall cabinet unanimously agreed to ask the Linus Rare Earth Plant to ship the toxic waste WLP piled up behind the factory before September 2 this year. In addition, the pile of NUF wastes will need to be put forward to solve their storage options before February 15 this year, or they will be ordered to stop operating. Yesterday Linus appealed to the Minister and asked the Minister to suspend the relevant instructions. This appeal is Linus’s basic right, just as the previous Minister issued a temporary operating license with Linus, we appealed to the Minister.
Next, the minister must convene a hearing to hear Linus's reasons before deciding whether to withdraw the order. Once the Minister believes that Linus has no valid reasons, its appeal will be dismissed, after which Linus can also apply to the court for an order to request the judicial review of the legitimacy of the Minister's instructions. In this way, Linus can continue to operate until the court decides. Linus’s move was like the way we took legal action that year. When Linus is really in the court, we will also ask for an intervention. Linus admits that they do not have the financial means to ship all WLPs abroad, while the scheme for handling NUF waste has not yet been approved by the relevant authorities. Linus suggested that the government allow them to store the latter waste in a ready-made waste pool on the grounds that they are actively looking for a solution to make it an industrial by-product. It is the former toxic waste WLP becomes the deadly burden of Linus. Failure to ship it abroad means that the Linus Rare Earth Plant will not be updated when the operating license expires on September 2. At that time it had to stop working.”
Source:
Points for discussion:
Firstly, don’t take anything from SMSL as being factual.
The words “...agreed to ask..” are interesting. Is this a translation issue? Or is this what Yeo has put to Cabinet? If the Cabinet Submission is simply recommending that the Minister “ask” Lynas to remove the WLP abroad, then there’s nothing binding on Lynas and this would indicate that the Government is on shaky legal ground.
While Fuzzy has been quoted as saying that Cabinet has made a decision, there has not been anything published on the Cabinet Office website: http://pmo.govmu.org/English/cabinetoffice/Pages/Latest-Cabinet-Decisions.aspx. Either there has not been a decision, or that the decision is commercially sensitive and therefore has not been published.
Lynas have recently indicated that they are in discussions with the Government. This seems to lend support to a Cabinet decision “asking” Lynas to remove the WLP abroad.
My guess is that Lynas are currently negotiating with the Government. Lynas may agree to remove the WLP abroad over a longer time period through the export of condisoil (as suggested by Calvo). Lynas could limit any commercial loss by clawing back some or all of the AELB bond. This gives Yeo, Fuzzy and Wong Tack a win and Lynas can continue to operate without a significant commercial constraint.
LYC Price at posting:
$1.67 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)