Rare earths refinery benefits Kuantan, says Lynas
By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 — Lynas Corp has told residents living near its rare earth plant in Kuantan that its RM1 billion investment into the Gebeng industrial zone will be a boon, not bane, for their future despite fears of its radioactive effects.
The Australian miner says its RM700 million refinery and other investments will be “the foundation industry for other high-technology industries that use rare earth.”
“This will be of benefit to the next generation of Malaysians,” executive chairman Nicholas Curtis told The Malaysian Insider in an interview yesterday, adding that the multiplier effect could result in double or triple the money flow from its initial investment.
“The whole momentum, the workshops we use, the equipment that needs to be built, maintenance contracts. The economic impact is far in excess of our own investment,” he said.
Curtis also insisted that the amount of thorium – the radioactive element found in virtually all rare earth deposits – that will be released from the factory would result in “zero public exposure” due to specialised storage dams it is constructing onsite. Studies say radiation is linked to diseases such as to cancer and congenital birth defects, fears of which has led environmentalists and local residents to protest against the project.
They have compared the plant being built by Lynas to the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) plant in Bukit Merah that eventually closed down in 1992 after sustained public protests.
Nearly two decades later, the plant is still undergoing a RM303 million cleanup exercise and has been linked to at least eight cases of leukemia, with seven resulting in death.
Although reports say that the plant may generate revenues amounting up to one per cent of the Malaysian GDP, critics have questioned the real economic benefit of the project, pointing to the 12-year tax holiday Lynas will receive after being accorded pioneer status.
