In a public relations blitz today, rare earth processing firm Lynas assured Malaysians that it would not repeat the mistakes of the Asian Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah.

NONE Taking up a full and half page advertorials in the inside pages of Star, Utusan Malaysia, Sin Chew Jit Poh and China Press , the company said its plant is "completely different" to the one in Bukit Merah.

"The Bukit Merah plant processed monazite from the waste of tine mines, which is very different to the rare earths we are processing," he said.

Lynas added that standards have also risen considerably compared to the 1990s when the Bukit Merah plant was in operation.

The Bukit Merah plant, run by Japanese company Mitsubishi Chemicals from the 1980s to the early 1990s, is blamed for spreading radiation poisoning in Bukit Merah due to what is claimed to be its poor management of radioactive waste generated from processing tin tailings to extract rare earth.

NONE The aftermath of the factory's operations has been one of the largest radioactive waste clean-ups in Asia, with a permanent site set up at the foot of nearby Kledang hill.

Lynas said that it is "proud of (its) health and safety standards" and "care a great deal" for the communities in which it operates.

The Australian companystressed that the mineral concentrate used by the Lynas Advanced Material Plant "has such low levels of radiation, it is classified as safe, non-toxic and non-hazardous by all international standards".

"There is low-level radiation from sunlight, from appliances such as television, radios, mobile phones...exposure to our rare earths poses no more risk than these everyday occurrences," it said.

It adds that the waste material from the plant also have low levels of thorium as the plant neither extracts or concentrates the material.

"International standards are being applied to (the plant), and we have fully endorsed and applied these standards from the start," it said, adding that its standards are among the highest in the world.

NONE Lynas said that it chose to build the plant in Gebeng and not Australia, where it met all regulations, as the Pahang town as it made "better business sense to be close to global customers".

"We are committed to giving answers. So please let us know if you have other questions or want to know more about Lynas, and we'll do our best to answer," it said.