© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A small toy figure and mineral imitation are seen in front of the Lynas Rare Earths logo in this illustration taken November 19, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
By Echha Jain
(Reuters) – Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths said on Friday it planned to shut all operations in Malaysia except a mixed rare earth carbonate processing plant in the December quarter, with minimal volumes of the raw material processed during the shutdown.
Shares of the miner fell as much as 2.7% to A$6.24 by 0045 GMT, the lowest since May 3.
Lynas’ Malaysian operations have been a sore point for the company, with the country’s government raising concerns about the radiation levels from cracking and leaching for the last couple of years and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warning of a policy to ban exports of rare earth raw materials.
It will implement an upgrade to its downstream operations at Lynas Malaysia to increase production of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) to about 10,500 tonnes per annum.
This upgrade will be essential if the company’s Malaysian operating licence, which has a condition that bars the miner from importing and processing rare earth raw materials from January 2024, is updated to allow the continued import and processing of Lanthanide concentrate, it said.
During the shutdown, which starts in mid-November to complete upgrading works, key personnel from the Malaysian cracking and leaching plant will be deployed to assist with the start-up process of its rare-earths processing facility in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Lynas, whose operating licence in Malaysia had been extended until January 2024, said application for a stay to allow it to operate on a normal basis in Malaysia while administrative and legal appeals are heard and decided has been listed for hearing in November.
The world’s largest producer of rare earths outside China also reported a 21.8% drop in its first quarter sales revenue to A$128.1 million ($81.04 million). It missed a consensus estimate of A$159 million, according to Barrenjoey.
“The production report looks a little underwhelming and plenty of maintenance issues to come which is not helpful,” said Henry Jennings, senior market analyst at Marcustoday.
NdPr production for the quarter came in at 1,526 rare earth oxide tonnes (REOt), compared with 1,045 REOt a year earlier.
($1 = 1.5808 Australian dollars)
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