The conditions of the license will prohibit the import and processing of lanthide which will require the closure of the cracking and leaching component of the Lynas Malaysia plant.
The appeal will be heard on April 28 by the Minister of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, 39 days before the conditions are set to come into effect.
But Lynas is concerned that the tight timeframe will cause a delay in its rare earths supply.
“There is no statutory time frame under the Atomic Energy Licence Act 1984 by when the Minister is required to make a decision on the appeals,” Lynas told the market.
“However, Lynas has requested that the appeals are addressed urgently.”
The company is further seeking a stay of the new license conditions until administrative and legal appeals have been resolved.
Lynas is racing to ramp up its Kalgoorlie rare earths processing facility to pick up the slack left by changes to its Malaysian operations.
“Planning for feed-on and production ramp up continues with a focus by the Lynas Kalgoorlie operational team on learning from the significant expertise of the Lynas Malaysia team in all aspects of cracking and leaching operations,” the company said.
When the expansion is complete, Lynas will undertake the cracking and leaching of rare earths in Kalgoorlie, before sending the intermediate product to Malaysia.
But the Kalgoorlie expansion won’t be on its feet until at least August, leaving a potential three-month void of rare earth supply.
Cracking and leaching leaves behind low-level radioactive waste, which the Malaysian Government seems no longer willing to tolerate.
