Lynas Corporation Ltd today expressed that it hoped to get a chance to brief members of the parliamentary select committee (PSC) tasked with studying its operations in Kuantan.

Lynas Corporation Ltd president and chief operating officer Eric Noyrez said the company intended to impress the PSC that it would adhere to all local regulations and international standards.

He said it was important for the company to give all the details to the PSC so as to quash all misleading information on the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp), which will be completed and ready for its operations in three weeks time.  

“We have no intention to dump the waste (from Lamp) as we see money in them and have developed the technology to turn them into saleable items. All these have been done at both laboratory and pilot scales, using between 100 and 200 tonnes of the raw material,” he said during a media briefing and tour of Lamp site in Kuantan, today.

Also present were Lynas Corp executive vice-president (people and culture) Glenn Barr, Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd managing director Mashal Ahmad, its plant general manager Khairul Salleh and radiological safety adviser Professor Dr Ismail Bahari.

At the briefing, Noyrez also demonstrated radioactive readings of table salt and incandescent gas mantles, which showed a way higher radioactivity than the three residues produced during rare earth processing.

He said the residues would be turned into economically viable products like plaster boards, fertilisers and hardcore base for road construction, and as such would render the issue of a permanent disposal facility site irrelevant.

Noyrez said it was important for Lamp to start operations as it would allow them to prove that its operation was safe and would not harm the people and the environment.  

Last month, the Dewan Rakyat approved a motion to set up the PSC on Lamp to look into the project’s safety standards as well as other issues which have attracted public attention.

‘Issue TOL as as soon as possible’

Mashal, meanwhile, said the company hoped that the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) could issue the temporary operating licence (TOL), which was approved on Jan 31, as soon as possible as it would take the company a month to ship the raw material from Australia.

“The licence has been approved but we have yet to receive it. But Lynas has already fulfilled all the conditions stipulated for the licence to be issued and we are just waiting.

“We hope it can be issued very soon because we need to start operations in three weeks time and any more delays could result in financial losses for suppliers, product shortages for customers and impact future investors,” he added.

On claims that Malaysia would face a rare earth “disaster” like China, Noyrez said the approach taken by Lynas Corp was much different as it had invested a significant amount and used the best technology to ensure that all types of waste were recycled or treated before they could be released to the environment.

He said further delays to the plant’s operation would not only affect Lynas Corp but also local suppliers and the downstream activities including companies which produced green products such as energy-saving bulbs and hybrid cars.

- Bernama