Lynas to send top guns to ground over radiation fears

 

By Debra Chong

A Kuantan resident signs a banner protesting the building of the Lynas rare earths plant in Gebeng on March 20, 2011. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — Rare earths miner Lynas Corp will be sending senior management officials here as opposition builds over its controversial RM700 million refinery in Gebeng, Pahang. Key members of its leadership will be heading down to the ground in Kuantan for a second series of townhall meetings to deal with the local community’s rising radiation fears, the Australian company’s general manager of brand, communications and community value, Liz Whiteway, told The Malaysian Insider here last week.
The date has yet to be fixed, Whiteway added.
The first round of townhall meetings was organised by the Pahang State Development Corporation (PKPN) in July 2009 and included the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) and the Department of Environment (DOE) apart from Lynas.
The Malaysian Insider has learnt that only a limited number of local residents were consulted since the project was mooted in 2007.
Local residents who live some 2km away from the Gebeng Industrial Zone have expressed vague uneasiness with having a potentially hazardous radioactive plant in their backyard.
Kuantan resident Sim Chon Siang, who was a part of that initial meeting, complained the explanations were very technical and hard to understand.

Fuziah has been drumming up support from Kuantan folk to halt the Lynas plant from powering up. — File pic

“We didn’t know what they were talking about. What are rare earths? What is thorium? What is safe? Most of the time, they just took down notes and said ‘We’ll get back to you’,” the 45-year-old civil engineer told The Malaysian Insider. Sim, who is also a special officer to Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, said there has been no follow-up from the local Lynas manager to date.
Fuziah has been drumming up support from Kuantan city folk to halt the Lynas plant from powering up, citing health and environmental risks.
But the federal lawmaker admitted she had not contacted Lynas headquarters in Sydney for a more detailed explanation on how safe its production will be.
“I think they are only interested in profit,” Fuziah replied, when asked why she did not do so.
The first-term MP had previously said she was working with Australia’s Green Party to pressure their two governments to act on Lynas.
Japan’s ongoing nuclear plant crisis, coupled with a recent New York Times (NYT) report highlighting the radioactive waste produced in the rare earth refining process, has revived debate on the issue.
Malaysia’s last rare earth plant was in the 1980s in Bukit Merah, Perak, which has been blamed for causing at least eight leukaemia cases, with seven resulting in death.
According to the same NYT report, the Japanese-owned plant operated by Mitsubishi Chemicals is still carrying out a massive RM300 million clean-up, nearly two decades after being shuttered.
Lynas has repeatedly stressed that its rare earths ore is obtained from its mine in Mount Weld, Australia and contains only trace amounts of the radioactive element thorium which, it said, is roughly 50 times less than those found in Bukit Merah.
Lynas is hoping to begin operations in September, and put it on track to compete with China, which produces 95 per cent of the world’s supply of rare earths.
The refined mineral is crucial to the manufacture of high-technology products such as smartphones, hybrid cars and bombs.
Lynas is anticipating hitting RM8 billion a year from 2013 based on current prices.