Mining Firm, Ex-Teacher Battle Over Rare Earths

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Feb 20, 2013

Protesters from the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas group demonstrated outside a hotel in Sydney, Australia, in November.

(Wall Street Journal) – In the Internet era, even a 64-year-old retired math teacher can become a threat to a large company.

That, at least, is the experience of Lynas Corp. For over a year, the Australian rare-earths mining company has come under fire from Tan Bun Teet and his band of tech-savvy campaigners on Malaysia’s South China Sea coast.

The group, called Save Malaysia Stop Lynas, has disrupted Lynas’s plans to open a refinery with a nimble, Internet-based campaign, drawing nationwide support through regularly updated blogs, Twitter feeds and a Facebook page. In a recent interview, Chief Executive Officer Nick Curtis said Lynas underestimated the extent to which the protesters had enlisted the organizing power of the Web, forcing the company to delay the opening of the plant until this past November, a full year behind schedule, and to raise money it didn’t initially plan for.

Sydney-based Lynas, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market value of 1.2 billion Australian dollars ($1.24 billion) appeared to be onto a winner when it broke ground for a new plant in Kuantan nearly five years ago. Global demand for materials such as lanthanum and neodymium was surging as the world’s appetite for hybrid cars, wind turbines and ever-faster phones with better screens increased.

The prospect of weakening China’s chokehold on 95% of the world trade in these critical elements helped convince Malaysia’s government that the project would be a success. It offered the firm a 12-year tax holiday to set up shop in Pahang, the home state of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Instead, construction of the $800 million Lynas refinery kicked off a debate with local residents about how to handle the low-grade radioactive waste that comes from processing rare-earth elements. The company and the Malaysian government say the plant is safe.

The clash is also now spilling over into national politics, as opposition firebrand Anwar Ibrahim incorporates the cause in his bid to topple the coalition that has governed this predominantly Muslim nation since independence from Britain in 1957. Elections are expected to be called this spring.

“If we can’t challenge the government in the courts, then perhaps the election will change the game,” says Mr. Tan, a wiry, methodical 64-year-old.

Rare earths are a group of 17 elements valued for their magnetic and conductive properties. While harmless by themselves, they are frequently found mixed with potentially dangerous radioactive ores such as thorium. Separating and refining them can be complex and messy.

James Hookway/The Wall Street Journal

Tan Bun Teet, center, at the Palace of Justice in December.

That has raised alarm among Malaysians who fear the government hasn’t done enough to ensure the safety of the Lynas plant. “We can’t trust them to do what’s right,” said Yu Siew Hong, a young mother who lives near the new facility.

Last month, Lynas secured a victory when the High Court in Kuantan dismissed protesters’ allegations that Malaysian authorities improperly awarded the firm an operating license. The company’s stock is also regaining interest among investors: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. upgraded its recommendation on the shares to “buy” from “hold” in recent weeks.

The company’s stock has continued to drift south, underscoring the difficulties still facing Lynas’s plans to become a breakthrough player in the global rare-earths market. Lynas’s shares fell 2.4%, to 61 Australian cents, on Monday.

Among other things, the company still faces another judicial review sought by Mr. Tan’s group.

The upshot: Lynas’s outlook “is still very uncertain,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Terry.

Mr. Tan, who serves as Save Malaysia Stop Lynas’s spokesman, isn’t your common variety of eco-warrior. He and the other protesters hadn’t taken much of an interest in environmental issues until Lynas began building its plant at the Gebeng industrial estate near Kuantan. Unlike groups such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, the group didn’t have experience in organizing protest campaigns.