Rare earth miner Lynas seeks recusal of Malaysian minister in last-ditch appeal against licence terms
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Australian miner Lynas claims that Malaysian Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang has a “political campaign” against it.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KUALA LUMPUR – Australian miner Lynas has demanded that Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang recuse himself from its appeal hearing on Friday on licence conditions that would force an abrupt halt to its Malaysian plant, the world’s largest rare earth production facility.
The Straits Times learnt that Lynas has accused Mr Chang, who is from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, of waging a “political campaign” against it, leaving it with little hope of receiving a fair hearing.
“The claim is that the minister, like his predecessor from PH, is setting up difficult terms to force a closure of the plant,” an official source said on condition of anonymity. “But the issue here is that by law, the minister has to decide on the appeal.”
Lynas accounts for half of the global supply outside of China of materials crucial to high-tech applications.
The authorities issued a three-year licence renewal to Lynas in February, but refused to remove conditions
The main requirement is the need to move “cracking and leaching” of lanthanide concentrate offshore and to only refine intermediate materials at its facility in Gebeng, near Kuantan in Pahang.
The refining processes have sparked fears of environmental and health hazards from the waste product, especially the release of radiation that Lynas insists has no impact on the normally occurring levels around Gebeng.
The PH-led government has since come under heavy pressure to ease the July deadline,
A closure of the A$1 billion (S$884 million) facility would not just be a huge blow to Lynas, but also impact the geopolitically sensitive supply of rare earths, with China controlling four-fifths of the world’s production.
ST understands that Pahang politicians from the opposition Perikatan Nasional as well as industry and diplomatic officials have lobbied Mr Chang to at least defer the deadline to later in the year, so that Lynas can complete an alternate cracking and leaching refinery in Australia.
There is no legal timeframe for when the minister must decide on the appeal.
In its quarterly report last week, Lynas said that if its licensing conditions remain unchanged, it would have to shut down its Malaysian plant in mid-July. The three months after that will see little or no production before it ramps up, depending on how the new refinery’s capacity increases.
Lynas has accused Mr Chang Lih Kang of waging a ‘political campaign’ against it.
PHOTO: ST FILE
When contacted, the firm declined to comment further, apart from what was outlined in the report.
It stated: “Grounds for the appeals, evidence related to those grounds and associated applications (including for a stay allowing Lynas to operate on a normal basis until the administrative and legal appeals have been heard and decided) have been lodged ahead of the formal hearing.”
The issue is politically sensitive as PH had, in the run-up to the 2018 General Election that it won, promised to reverse the then Barisan Nasional (BN) regime’s decision to greenlight Lynas’ operations.
The Umno-led BN is now a key ally in PH chief Anwar’s unity government, after the 2022 general election resulted in Malaysia’s first-ever hung Parliament.
In February 2020, just days before PH was ousted as a result of defections, it was announced that the government had given Lynas a three-year permit to operate, on the condition that cracking and leaching would be moved out of Malaysia, and a waste disposal site developed within a year.
There is no record of Lynas mounting an appeal against those conditions in 2020.
