LYNAS ~ Looks like the genie has fled the LAMP!

LYNAS ~ THE JOURNEY TO NOWHERE

Rare Earth Future
16 Oct 2012

Back in January this year, investors were becoming dispirited with progress on LAMP completion. I wrote an article for this site called “Where Lynas is at.” My final summation was:

“Clearly, Lynas will no longer be the same company after POL approval. It should be one heavily in demand. At a time when investors are looking for a safe place to invest, yet one with outstanding returns, many will want to be a part of it.”

The article was premature and I strongly regret writing it. 10 months later, the LAMP has been completed less than 2 months, the Pre-Operating Licence has been approved, issued and then suspended. It remains suspended.

Nick Curtis, Lynas executive chairman 

Along the way, I have seen countless strong supporters of the company lose most of their assets as the continued delays and uncertainties have allowed the big players to control the market and manipulate the share price as low as 56 cents.

The uncertainties have been greatly assisted by the poor flow of, at times misleading, information from the company. I will detail what the company has done, how it has poorly informed the market over a considerable period. It has been the light on the hill on a dark night, enticing us to stagger to the top only to see that light extinguished and another one to appear on the next hill. And so on.

The LAMP was originally scheduled to be in production by 30/06/11. Not only is it still not producing, there is not one iota of confidence that it will ever produce.

[READ THE REST HERE.]

Photo: Juana Jaafar

Malaysians mobilize to fight Lynas plant

Opposition to Lynas escalates on all fronts...

Anti-Lynas Himpunan Hijau 2.0 in Kuantan, Pahang, 26 February 2012 (photo: Malaysiakini)

PETALING JAYA: The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) has revealed that Lynas Corporation Ltd was supposed to build its plant in Western Australia and not Malaysia.

According to ANAWA, Lynas’ 14-year-old blueprint indicated that the Australian mining giant had orginally planned to build its processing plant in Meenar a decade ago. But until today there had been no signs of any development on the intended site.

ANAWA spokesperson Marcus Atkinson told FMT that the orginal approvals were given by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for Lynas to ship rare earth to buyers and confirmed that he had viewed these relevant documents firsthand.

Under pressure: Nick Curtis, Lynas CEO (TMI)

However, he said that Lynas had since made numerous alterations to its operations to the point that its rare earth refinery had now landed in Malaysia.

“Instead of transporting processed rare earth, it is now shipping a concentrate which contains thorium and other radioactive material with more heavy metals,” he told FMT.

Atkinson admitted that they had been more focused on Lynas’ operations in Australia until the uproar in Malaysia reached their ears and they realised that Lynas’ had made “massive” changes to its plans.

“Now it involves Malaysia and our moral responsibility,” he said. “This is a complete change to the original project hence why we are urging the EPA to review Lynas’ approvals.”

ANAWA and Australia’s Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) lodged a referral with the EPA this morning calling on the latter to reopen the project and revisit Lynas’ “outdated” approvals.

Atkinson had yesterday raised deep concerns over the amount of radioactive material being transported from Mount Weld to Fremantle Port for export and called for stronger regulations to be put in place to ease the fears of the surrounding community.

He had also drawn attention to the fact that Lynas had sparked off Malaysia’s largest environmental campaign with its RM2.5 billion Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng, Kuantan.

The nationwide Himpunan Hijau 2.0 rally held on March 26 saw more than 15,000 people gathering to demand that Lynas be ousted from Kuantan.

Less stringent laws

Atkinson added that ANAWA and EDO strongly believed that Lynas had chosen to move its operations to Malaysia because of the heavy metals and radioactive waste involved in the processing.

“We believe Lynas picked Malaysia to save money and enable it to operate under less stringent laws,” he stated.

“The biggest concerns about the processing are the storage and waste management issues which are made more difficult in Gebeng which we understand to be wetlands.”

Asked if Lynas would be allowed to operate in the same manner and with the same liberty in Western Australia as in Gebeng, Atkinson firmly replied in the negative. “There is no way it could operate the way it is in Malaysia over here,” he said. “Australia’s laws are much more stringent.”

Atkinson issued a further call for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be scrutinised for downplaying the levels of radioactivity soon to be produced by Lynas’ operations.

“Just because the radioactive elements fall below the IAEA’s levels it doesn’t mean that the products don’t contain any radioactivity,” he pointed out.

EDO and its lawyers would also be issuing a letter to Lynas today urging it to stop any plans for the exportation of rare earth until the EPA reached a decision following the referral submission.

The EPA was expected to revert to ANAWA and EDO within 28 days on whether it would reopen the case or if Lynas’ current approvals were good enough.

“If they refuse to review the project then we will file a court case against it,” Atkinson promised.

Lynas’ letter of undertaking

Poet Laureate Samad Said (second from left)
at Himpunan Hijau 2.0

Meanwhile in another development, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said today that Lynas had given the government a letter of undertaking to send its rare earth processing residue abroad if it cannot find a suitable waste disposal site in Malaysia.

The Star Online reported Mustapa as saying that the move was taken as an assurance to the people’s psychological and emotional safety.

“Even though the government is satisfied there will be no radioactive residue produced during the plant’s operation, we have ordered Lynas to guarantee and plan the provision of a permanent waste disposal facility far from human population as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Failing which, Lynas has already expressed willingness to take the residue out of Malaysia,” he said in a joint statement with Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob in Kuantan.

The report also quoted the minister as saying that the Western Australia Resources Minister Norman Moore had confirmed on Feb 29 that the rare earth’s radiation level was very low. “The fact is, the rare earth does not need to be controlled by Australia because it is not dangerous but in Malaysia, AELB is overseeing the project after considering the public’s opinion,” he added.

Mustapa said the government was urging Lynas to take extra care for the sake of the people, and not because of “threats by Himpunan Hijau” which had said it would hold another anti-Lynas rally if the government refuse to shut down the project.

LYNAS MUST GO!

Interviews following ANAWA/EDO submission of appeal to WA EPA today (audio recording)

FAIR DINKUM AND GOOD ON YA, NAIM-WEE!

Right, Mr Nick Curtis. You got the message loud and clear.
Now kiss my coit and fook off!

30-minute overview of a looming disaster called Lynas

Gilbert Almeida poses some intelligent questions with distractingly theatrical affectation - while Fuziah Salleh is entirely credible and convincing with her clear, concise responses. This feisty level-headed MP for Kuantan is one of the brightest silver linings in the dark and ominous Lynas cloud that hangs over the people Pahang.

This 30-minute interview presents an excellent summary and overview of the atrocious Lynas rare refinery project. Another hideous long-term curse brought upon Malaysians by the morally deformed Umno/BN regime.

This is what I call world-class journalism... Thanks, Kiera!

Will Malaysians Get Cancer for Your iPhone or Prius?

I went to the site of a notorious rare-earth refinery - and investigated plans for a new one - to find out.

By Kiera Butler | Mon Feb. 13, 2012

Greetings from Malaysia! I'm here working on a reporting project about 17 elements at the bottom of the periodic table known as the rare earths, which are key to manufacturing all kinds of cutting-edge technology—from smartphones and laptops to wind turbines and hybrid-car motors to defense technology, including tank engines, radar and sonar systems, and navigation systems in smart bombs. For the last few decades, China controlled the world's market for rare earths, producing about 97 percent of the global supply. But in late 2010, China cut its exports by 35 percent to keep the valuable metals for its own manufacturers. The prices of rare earths shot up, and almost immediately mining outfits in other countries began cropping up.

One of the biggest to come on the scene is Lynas, an Australian company. Although the company will mine its materials in Australia, it hopes to build its refinery in Malaysia. It was granted a temporary license to operate last month; the company says that once it is up and running, it will be able to supply a fifth of the world's rare earths. If all goes according to plan, Lynas rare earths could soon be found in flat-screen televisions at your neighborhood Best Buy and Priuses at your local car dealership.

Since rare earths occur naturally with the radioactive elements thorium and uranium, safety is a major concern with using them. Engineers have expressed reservations about the safety of the Lynas refinery's design, as the New York Times has reported. Some Malaysians suspect that Lynas is choosing to refine in Malaysia in order to sidestep more stringent environmental regulations at home.

I've been traveling around with Lee Tan, an unflappable environmental consultant who grew up in Kuantan and now lives in Australia. This year, Lee has spent most of her spare time working to stop the refinery from opening. "My mom lives in Kuantan, and my brothers and sisters were thinking about retiring there," she says. "Now, they're not so sure."

You can't blame them for their concerns: Malaysia has hosted a rare-earth refinery before, with some painful results. From 1979-92, the Japanese company Mitsubishi ran a plant called Asia Rare Earth, where it processed the materials it needed to sell electronics to markets all over the world. In the years since, nearby villagers have seen birth defects and eight cases of childhood leukemia. Mitsubishi is still dealing with the mess; the New York Times called it "the largest radiation cleanup yet in the rare earth industry."

[READ THE FULL STORY HERE.]

Kiera Butler is the articles editor at Mother Jones.

Are Lynas and Umno/BN merely insensitive... or ABSOLUTELY INSANE?

Serious flooding during the recent monsoon season in the immediate vicinity of the
nearly-completed Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng, Pahang

Key contractor pulled out of Lynas plant due to safety concerns, says NYT
By Shannon Teoh | The Malaysian Insider
February 01, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 1 – A Dutch chemical firm refused to supply crucial resins for Lynas Corp’s controversial RM2.5 billion rare earth plant in Kuantan due to safety concerns, according to the New York Times.

The influential newspaper cited engineers working for the Australian miner at the Gebeng industrial zone site and internal company e-mails as saying that AkzoNobel withdrew after it was told that the fibreglass liners using its resin would be installed in concrete-walled tanks that have a problem with rising dampness in the floors and cracks in the walls.

Proposed Lynas rare earth refinery flooded
on 13 January 2012 (courtesy of SMSL)

“AkzoNobel had been in discussions about the problem of rising dampness, but only became aware of the cracks this autumn,” the daily reported.

The resins were to be used to glue together dozens of fibreglass liners for concrete-walled tanks the size of double-decker buses where hundreds of tons of rare earths with low levels of radiation will be mixed with extremely corrosive acids at more than 93 degrees Celcius.

The company had said early last year it would supply chemicals for the Lynas project, which has raised fears of radiation pollution among local residents and environmentalists, only if it were certain that it would be safe.

LAMP waste water discharge point flooded  
in December 2011 after two days of heavy rain (SMSL)

In a report last June, the NYT had said that there were critical flaws in the design of the refinery, including the installation of the watertight fibreglass liners.

It said that memos showed Lynas pressed a Malaysian contractor, Cradotex, to proceed with the installation of watertight fibreglass liners designed for the containment tanks without fixing the moisture problem and with limited fixes to the walls.

“These issues have the potential to cause the plant’s critical failure in operation,” Peter Wan, the general manager of Cradotex, said in a June 20 memo obtained by the newspaper.

“More critically, the toxic, corrosive and radioactive nature of the materials being leached in these tanks, should they leak, will most definitely create a contamination issue."

[Read the full story here.]

Are Lynas and Umno/BN utterly insane? The rare earth refinery is located in a flood-prone zone!

Regardless of who forms the next government... LYNAS MUST GO! WE THE PEOPLE OF MALAYSIA SAY SO!

I wholeheartedly salute all those who have persevered in the citizens' campaign against the proposed Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng, near Kuantan - especially Fuziah Salleh (who first raised the issue in parliament), Tan Bun Teet (chairman of Save Malaysia Stop Lynas) and Bang Seet Ping (organizing secretary of Himpunan Hijau 2.0). On 26 February 2012, lend your support and make your stand. Lynas knows it cannot operate in a hostile environment but is stubbornly pushing on with the project because it has already invested untold amounts of money, greasing certain people's palms to fast-track their lethal and ruinous project (which was granted an unprecedented 12-year tax holiday by the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Industry!)



Lynas wants to dump wastes on island off Pahang
Koh Jun Lin | Malaysiakini
10:38AM Jan 27, 2012

Australian company Lynas Corporation, which intends to open its rare earth materials refining plant in Gebeng, near Kuantan, soon, wants radioactive solid wastes from the plant to be dumped on an uninhabited island off the coast of Pahang.

Alternatively, the wastes may be disposed off in an area where there is no development, said Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, who has been campaigning against the rare earth plant.

These proposals are contained in Lynas’ waste management plans, which were on public display until yesterday, said Fuziah (left), who is a PKR vice-president.

“They say that they have not identified the location of the Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF), but they are considering a few options.

One option is an island off the coast of Pahang that is uninhabited,” she said when contacted.

The PDF is intended for the plant’s solid waste stream, which is classified as radioactive wastes.

The other two waste streams also contain radioactive materials, but have not been classified as radioactive and Lynas intends to recycle and commercialise these.

However, Fuziah said, the location of the island has not been determined because the idea “is still being considered.”

‘Radioactive materials can leach into the sea’

Voicing her strong opposition to the proposal, Fauziah yesterday handed over a written submission to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) in Kuantan.

“This must never be allowed as the materials from the PDF can leach into the sea,” her submission states.

“Considering that radionuclides have a half-life of 14 billion years, it is feared that the leachate will harm marine life a few hundred years down the road.”

As for the alternative, she told Malaysiakini, “Basically, it will have to be in the jungle. But you don’t even know... there will come a day when the future generations want to develop that land”.

The government, Fuziah added, should follow the examples of other countries, where waste disposal facilities are the responsibility of the state. This especially so, because Lynas only plans to be in Malaysia for about 20 years.

Outspoken Kuantan MP and PKR vice-president Fuziah Salleh has been spearheading
the campaign to stop Lynas before anyone even heard about this sneaky project

Press conference in Kuantan on 26 January 2012 after handing over a 4-page joint memorandum
by the Stop Lynas Coalition and Save Malaysia Stop Lynas to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB)
and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Industry (MOSTI) 

"To put a toxic waste dump so close to where people are fishing and there's tourism is highly irresponsible."

Lynas is doing a dangerously messy job at Mt Weld extracting rare earth...

Poisonous leaks: Lynas extracting rare earth at Mount Weld, Western Australia

MEDIA RELEASE FROM THE NATIONA:L TOXICS NETWORK
28 November 2011

Lynas Corporation granted ‘permit to pollute’ with radioactive waste

Controversial rare earth manufacturer Lynas Corporation has been granted a licence by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) that will allow the company to store radioactive slurry in ponds that will leak over 5 million litres of radioactive waste per annum, the National Toxics Network said today.

“This ‘permit to pollute’ comes on the back of the discovery by the DEC that the original tailings ponds built by Lynas would leak an astonishing 186,000 litres per day or, 67 million litres of contaminated waste per annum” said Lee Bell, NTN spokesperson.

The ponds are situated at the Lynas Concentrator plant at Mt Weld near Laverton.

“Rare earth ores from the Mount Weld mine undergo chemical processing at the plant with radioactive waste slurry from the process being dumped in ponds. The DEC refused to allow Lynas to dump their waste until they had constructed a smaller lined pond specifically for waste disposal” Mr Bell said.

Lynas plans to ship rare earth ore overland to Fremantle and then by sea to Kuantan, Malaysia

“Lynas have admitted in their Radiation Management Plan that their ore, concentrate and waste are sufficiently radioactive to be above the annual public dose limit of 1mSv per year. Despite this the DEC will let them use ponds that will leak up to 5 million litres per year of radioactive tailings waste” said Mr Bell.

“The Department of Mines and Petroleum have declared that the Lynas waste slurry must be managed as radioactive tailings due to its thorium and uranium content yet the concentrate, which has much higher radioactivity will not be transported as radioactive material - despite earlier approvals requiring this higher level of regulation. Malaysia will also require the Lynas concentrate to be transported as a radioactive material as soon as it lands” Mr Bell said.

“This is in stark contrast to public statements by Lynas that their product is so low in radiation that it does not need to be transported as a radioactive material when it is shipped through WA and Fremantle Ports. The public are being hoodwinked and government agencies are supporting this deception,” said Mr Bell

NTN calls on the Western Australian government to stop the leakage at Mount Weld and ban any shipments of the Lynas concentrate until an independent assessment of the radiation risks of Lynas concentrate is made public.

Media Contact – Lee Bell +61417 1966 04




Save Malaysia Stop Lynas Press Statement on Lynas’s Leaky Project
Monday, 28th November 2011

Lynas’s Mount Weld Plant Leaking Toxic Waste

The Save Malaysia Stop Lynas Committee (SMSL) has been informed by the Australian watch group National Toxic Network that Lynas’s Western Australia’s (WA) Mount Weld tailing ponds would leak an astonishing 186,000 litres of radioactive waste per day or, 67 million litres of contaminated waste per annum.

The WA Department of Environment and Conservation DEC has refused to allow Lynas to dump their waste until they have constructed a lined pond specifically for waste disposal.

“It is indeed a shocking discovery that Lynas would dare to do this knowing full well it would not be acceptable in Australia,” says Mr Tan Bun Teet, Chairman of SMSL.

However, even the new lined tailings facility is estimated to leak at the rate of up to 14,000 litres per day according to the Department of Environment and Conservation.

SMSL calls on the Government to suspend the construction of the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP) and institute a full-scale independent engineering audit.

Since exposure in the New York Times in late June of the LAMP’s serious design flaws and shoddy construction, there has not been any official investigation or independent audit to ascertain and ensure that Lynas has properly rectified the problems.

Lynas’s persistent recalcitrant behaviour is of great concern and a massive risk to public health and safety. If LAMP is allowed to operate, serious contamination problems will ensue, risking the entire economy and well-being of the local people and Malaysia as a whole.

It is high time the BN government exercised genuine prudence in the interest of public safety, the sustainability of vital environmental resources, and for the sake of our long-term economic health. We call on the government to use its power to fully and thoroughly investigate the various disturbing issues which have surfaced.

To date, the public has not been given access to detailed information on the project and Lynas's long-term waste management plan is unclear - although these are two of the key recommendations specified by the IAEA and agreed to both by the Malaysian Government and Lynas as requirements to comply with before the pre-operating licence is issued.

Find out more here!

Can a series of short films halt an impending environmental disaster called Lynas?

Madam Lai Kwan was pregnant in 1982 when she worked at the Mitsubishi rare earth refinery in Bukit Merah, Malaysia. This film is a peek into the life she has led since her child was born in 1983...

I applaud Tan Chui Mui's cinematic initiative, dubbed Survival Guide untuk Kampung Radioaktif, wherein she recruited a group of young filmmakers to raise public awareness on an extremely serious issue through satire, humor and empathy. What prompted Tan to take action is the simple fact that she was born 33 years ago in a fishing village named Sungai Ular, a stone's throw from the site in Gebeng, Pahang, where Lynas Corporation is in the process of completing what is touted to be the world's largest rare earth processing plant.

Lynas Advanced Materials Plant under construction in Gebeng, Pahang

According to Fuziah Salleh, PKR member of parliament for Kuantan, Lynas submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment to the Pahang state government on 21 January 2008 - and it was approved in less than 3 weeks.

Rare earth processing in China: a health hazard

Something like that can indicate one thing only - a few powerful and privileged palms were heavily greased. Even more astounding, Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry granted Lynas the very next day a 12-year tax holiday. Undoubtedly, dishonest bureaucrats, bribeable panjandrums, and extremely lax environmental enforcement were the main reasons why Lynas picked Malaysia for its highly polluting rare earth processing plant - and the fact that Gebeng is situated in Pahang, Najib Razak's home state, may also be a factor.

Twenty years ago, Lynas would have met with little, if any, public resistance. However, times have changed. The people of Kuantan are up in arms about the imminent destruction of their peaceful, low-stress lifestyle. Indeed, the 700,000 residents of Kuantan district have good reason to be stressed out by Lynas's giant rare earth processing plant - because they live within a 35km radius of it.

Isengard, industrial stronghold of the dark wizard Saruman

Most of us know next to nothing about rare earth processing and what it entails. However, we have seen the aftermath of rare earth processing and what it does to the environment - particularly in China, which has been the world's #1 extractor and processor of rare earths over the last three decades. If you have seen Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, you would have a good idea what Mount Doom looks like. That's how the landscape is left after rare earth has been extracted... and Saruman's industrial hell, Isengard, gives you a rough idea how the landscape will look when these radioactive metals are processed.

Malaysia will have to be renamed Mordoria...

Lynas claims its rare earth processing plant will provide 350 jobs to Malaysians. Big deal - especially when Lynas will be exempt from paying taxes for 12 years on its projected earnings of approximately RM8 billion a year.

Sauron rules in Mordoria!

No surprise then that the BN government is wholly behind the project when it has already been paid an undisclosed amount as "a deposit against possible environmental damage." Apart from this, politically connected companies like Kencana Petroleum (whose CEO happens to be Mokhzani Mahathir, eldest son of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad) have been awarded lucrative construction contracts.

Lake poisoned by toxic waste from a rare earth processing plant

Radioactive waste water being pumped out from a Chinese rare earth processing plant.


"ENGINEERS FEAR RARE EARTH REFINERY 
IN MALAYSIA IS DANGEROUS"
~ New York Times

SAVE MALAYSIA STOP LYNAS!

WE'RE DETERMINED TO STOP YOU, LYNAS! GREEDY PIGS!

GET HUNGRY AS CHEF WANI PREPARES A MEAL YOU WON'T FORGET!

Part of the Series: Survival Guide Untuk Kampong Radioaktif 
Follow us on FB: www.facebook/kampongradioaktif

SAVE MALAYSIA STOP LYNAS! 
2,000 attend a piñata party at Taman Gelora, Pahang, on 13 November 2011...

Expressing anger at the destructivity of Lynas brings out the creativity in Malaysians!

Guardians of the piñatas...   

Getting ready to lynch the Lynas gremlins...

Section of the large crowd at the early morning event.

A total of 26 colorful  piñatas were designed and constructed by volunteers.

Although piñata bashing is popular in Mexico, the ritual actually originated in China. 
It's supposed to banish the demons of ill fortune and bring good luck to the community.

As usual the men-in-blue were instructed to do everything possible to deter people from venting
their frustration and determination to stop this hideous project that benefits nobody except
Lynas and a handful of UMNO warlords. They ought to be ashamed of themselves - serving
the big-time crooks and intimidating decent citizens!

Aerobics session in the fresh morning air...

A local resident braves police harassment to express her disgust.

Section of the multiracial crowd courageously voicing their disapproval
of the dirty business deal between BN and Lynas. They are determined to keep
up the protest until the environmentally ruinous project is halted.

The people of Kuantan cherish their beautiful beaches and laidback lifestyle.
They're ready to battle any villainous corporation and corrupt regime 
through non-violent means...

A whole new generation of awakened activists is born - no thanks to Lynas!

[Photos courtesy of SAVE MALAYSIA STOP LYNAS]