Pollution issues and controversy over rare earth company Lynas
With intense competition between China and the United States, more and more countries are rare to the world.
With the concentrated competition between China and the United States, it is increasingly paying attention to the rare world that plays an important role in defense and other industries. LynasThe largest manufacturer of rare soil materials other than China attracted great attention. However, behind these emphasis, pollution and other discussions on Lynas never stopped.
Facility in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: Radioactive waste was forced to move back
Lynas’s rare lands processing facility Kalgoorelie was founded in 2023. The facility is designed to process the rare soil concentrate from the mountain source mine. The concentrates pass through a cracking and leaching process to produce mixed rare earth carbonates, which are then divided into pure rare soil oxides in Malaysia and US facilities.
Cracking and leaching produce radioactive wastes, the most pollutant and controversial part of Lynas. Before 2023, cracking and leaching was made in Malaysia. However, the radioactive wastes produced at this stage were unacceptable for Malaysia, so he asked the Malaysian government to change the location of Lynas, or the entire plant would be closed. To ensure the integrity of Rare Earths production, Lynas had no choice but to move the cracking and leaching facility to Kalgoorlie.
Since the Kalgoorelie facility started its operations, water supply has been controversial. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder signed a 30-year agreement with Lynas and accepted the recycled water supply of 1.7 Gigalitres, who faced the largest island cities of Australia with severe water continents.
As the Australian government and the Lynas refused to explain the details of the agreement, it created much more discontent and controversy.
KUANTAN, Facility in Malaysia: Difficulties to renew its business license
Lynas’s Malaysian Factory is located in Kuantan and has been operating since 2012. The plant processes the resource concentrate and the mixed rare soil carbonate and divides them into pure rare soil oxides.
Consists of three processing areas:
- Cracking and leaching (the Malaysian government required Lynas to close this region in 2023, but soon changed its mind and allowed Lynas to keep it in Malaysia);
- Solvent extraction; And
- End of product
Lynas produced millions of tons of radioactive waste in Malaysia ten years ago. Lynas once promised to send radioactive wastes back to Australia. However, the Australian government refused to accept waste and collapsed in Malaysia. When Malaysia renewed Lynas’s operating license in 2023, the company had to develop a new technology before the expiry date of its license, which was March 2026 to remove thorium from radioactive waste and eliminate radioactivity. However, as it remains only six months, progress is not made by Lynas by giving uncertainty about license renewal expectations.
In addition, Lynas’s local contractor Gading senggara sdn bhd (GSSB) Malaysia belongs to the Royal Family. In particular, the Sultan of Phabitor, during Lynas’s license renewal in 2023, served as Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (Supreme ruler) of Malaysia. However, the current supreme ruler is the sultan of Johor, who has no connection with Lynas.
Facility in Texas, USA: Unresolved wastewater administration Lynas’s rare land ambitions extend beyond Australia and Malaysia. In August 2023, the company announced a contract with the US Department of Defense to build a heavy rare land facility in Seadrift, Texas. This plant will process rare soil carbonate mixed with rare soil oxides separated from Kalgoorlie without entering the stages of cracking and leaching.
The Texas facility, which was initially planned to operate in 2026, has not yet been broken due to the so -called “technical bottlenecks” in waste water treatment. The fact that the US does not meet waste water standards shows basic flaws in Lynas’s waste water treatment technology. The company may have been releasing non -compatible waste water in both Malaysia and Australia for years. This may be the reason that Lynas refuses to disclose waste water monitoring data. Lynas wants to hide his illegal behavior from public control.
Departure from Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategy
Due to the increasing strategic importance of the rare worlds, the Albanian government promised to invest $ 1.2 billion in order to resist the increasing trade tensions and to establish a critical mineral reserve as a bargaining chip with Japan, the United States and the EU. Local rare land companies, including Iluka Resources and Arafura Resources, supported this movement and argued that Lynas would multiply policy and develop market prices and develop inanimate projects.
In fact, in recent years, since US President Donald Trump announced mutual tariffs, the Australian government has been strongly encouraging more than one local mining and separation projects to transform Australia from a resource -based exporter to a strategic supplier. However, Lynas’s strategy constantly contradicts this strategy: Australia’s rare earth ores to Malaysia, where these minerals are more rare to the world and sold to the United States, Japan and other countries at a much higher price.
Lynas also plans to invest in downflowing activities, for example, building a new facility to produce permanent rare earth magnets. The separation of the rare world and the production of permanent rare earth magnets are two of the most strategically important sectors in the rare soil industry.
If Lynas continues to focus on the strategic footprint outside Australia, it will be difficult for the Australian government to be a favorite and that the dispute between them will not end.
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