Australian company Lynas has no long term radioactive waste management plan for its Malaysian project

Lynas back to earth after loss, The Age, Greg Roberts, September 24, 2011, AUSTRALIA’S largest rare-earths miner, Lynas Corporation, has posted a 33 per cent widening in its full-year loss following a year blighted by controversy. Public protests this year prompted an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency into whether the Lynas rare-earth refinery in Malaysia presented radioactive risks….

The loss was flagged on Thursday when the company received a query from the Australian Securities Exchange, which noted a sharp slump in Lynas’s share price and heavy trading volumes of about 43 million shares.Lynas blamed the widening loss on higher operating costs at its flagship Mount Weld rare-earths mine in Western Australia, as production increased.

Lynas’s operating expenses shot up 87.5 per cent from $30.65 million to $57.46 million. It says 11,000 tonnes a year of rare-earth oxides will be produced at Mount Weld.

Lynas received a favourable report from the IAEA about the refinery in Kuantan, but has been told to provide a long-term waste-management plan. More than 60 per cent of the refinery has been built. It is hoped the plant will curtail China’s monopoly of more than 95 per cent of the global supply of rare earths…… http://www.theage.com.au/business/lynas-back-to-earth-after-loss-20110923-1kped.html#ixzz1Yv9BaYWp

September 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Western Australia

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