Lynas to temporarily shut and upgrade Malaysia operations

afr.com:

Lynas Rare Earths reported a 21.8 per cent fall in first-quarter revenue, dragged down by lower production, and is preparing to shut down all bar one of its operations in Malaysia in the December quarter.

The world’s biggest supplier of rare earths outside of China said its mixed rare earth carbonate processing plant in Malaysia will remain open in the December quarter.

But its remaining operations in the south-east Asian country will close from mid-November to upgrade the facilities, allowing some workers to assist with Lynas’ new rare-earths processing plant in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The WA operations were established in response to regulatory demands imposed by Malaysia.

Minimal volumes of the rare earths, a key ingredient in wind turbines, electronics and military applications, will be processed in Malaysia during the shutdown, it said.

Lynas is still holding out hope the Malaysian High Court will find in its favour — to allow the company to keep importing and processing rare earths that leave low-level radioactive residue. But as it stands, Malaysia’s ban is still set to come into force on January 1, 2024.

As part of the shutdown, Lynas will upgrade its downstream operations at Lynas Malaysia to increase production of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) to about 10,500 tonnes per annum.

This upgrade will be essential if the High Court allows the continued import and processing of Lanthanide concentrate from January 1, Lynas told the market.

If the court does not endorse Lynas’ position, the extra capacity will still be required to feed its Kalgoorlie plant as it ramps up to its nameplate capacity to produce approximately 9,000tpa NdPr finished product.

The Lynas downstream operations at Kuantan in Malaysia