He said that following the three-year licence extension granted to Lynas, the Australian rare earths mining company must comply with conditions that prohibits it from importing and processing rare earths concentrate after July 1.
Chang said while the government understood the importance of the rare earth industry and was committed to creating a business-friendly environment, no one has the right to “continuously produce radioactive waste” in Malaysia.
“Lynas must comply with the conditions imposed since March 2020 so that cracking and leaching (C&L) activities that produce radioactive waste will be conducted in Australia,” Chang said at a press conference in Parliament.
“No C&L activities will be carried out at the Lynas Advanced Material Plants (LAMP) in Gebeng, Pahang, after July.
“If Lynas fails to comply with the conditions imposed on them, their licence could be revoked.”
Yesterday, Lynas announced its operating licence in Malaysia, which was set to expire next month, had been renewed for three years with no change to the four conditions set in 2020 by the Pakatan Harapan government.
The first of the four conditions was for Lynas to begin the process of developing a permanent disposal facility (PDF) to dispose of its radioactive waste within the first year from the date of approval of the licence.
The second condition was for the company to submit a work development plan for the construction of the PDF and report on its development status as determined by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).
Lynas also had to ensure that a C&L plant outside Malaysia is in operation before July, after which it would no longer be allowed to import raw materials containing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) into Malaysia.
The final condition was the holding of a financial deposit for compliance with the relevant licence conditions.
Chang said that while Lynas had submitted an application to remove these four conditions, it was turned down by the AELB.
He added that the PDF was 32% completed and he hoped that it would be completed by this year.
Chang also said that Lynas had produced approximately 1.08 million metric tonnes of radioactive waste since operating in Malaysia from 2012, with the amount expected to reach 1.2 million metric tonnes by July.