Malaysia's Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) has postponed granting a temporary rare earths mine operating license (TOL) to Australian miner Lynas Corp. (ASX:LYC) until an outstanding appeal by residents to the science, technology and innovation minister has been completed.
The decision comes only a day after the Australian miner announced the Gebeng plant, located on the east coast of Malaysia, was 97% complete and ready to operate in three weeks.
Lynas has been under attack from residents, environmentalists and even filmmakers since the company started building the facility in 2010.
In January, the regulator approved the TOL for Lynas' Gebeng but has said it will not issue the permit until the Australian miner complies with extra safety conditions.
Critics of the project believe that allowing the US$230 million refinery will jeopardize Malaysian’s well being and the environment. Supporters, on the other hand, remark that the plant is set to become one of the few sources outside China to process rare earths and produce metals used in high-tech equipment from weapons to cell phones.
Currently, about 90% of rare earths metals are processed in China. However, since the operations produce radioactive waste, Beijing has decided to restrict its rare earth mining.
Eric Noyrez, president and chief operating officer of Lynas Corp., said in a media briefing yesterday that the company hopes to meet the members of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) “to clear the misleading information being spread about the LAMP rare earths facility, “ reports International Business Times.
"We have no intention to dump the waste (from LAMP) as we see money in them and have developed the technology to turn them into saleable items. All these have been done at both laboratory and pilot scales, using between 100 and 200 tonnes of the raw material," Noyrez said.
The Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) was originally scheduled to start processing rare earths in the third quarter of 2011.
