Let’s Finish Lynas Off!

For over two years we have fought tirelessly to Stop Lynas. We have crossed many milestones and Lynas is now fighting its own battle to survive even though the Lynas plant is still in Gebeng. Let us KEEP UP our spirit to save our future!

Lynas – An Investment NightmareLynas’ share value has been hovering between A38c to A45c as compared to its peak value of A$2.30 in early 2011 – clearly the market has lost confidence in Lynas. Recently Lynas sold its first batch of rare earths at a huge loss for a paltry A$5/kg against a high production costs of almost A$20/kg! Besides, it only managed to sell 117 tonnes of refined rare earth oxide, a long way short of its highly publicised first phase target of 11,000 tonnes. Lynas finally conceded there have been equipment problems and processing times that were longer than expected. The Deutsche Bank again issued a “SELL” advice on ground that Lynas is facing possible capital issues casting doubt on its ability to repay one of its debt facilities.

To top it up, Lynas has withdrawn its defamation suit against Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL). SMSL has advocated based on evidence and credible scientific and engineering assessment of the Lynas project. We have consulted with highly qualified independent experts from different fields. Our claims are backed up with facts and science. We will continue to fight until we have exhausted every available legal avenue here and in Australia. We will campaign so that no reputable potential buyers will touch Lynas’ products for fear of a backlash from green consumers who expect a very high standard of environmental safeguards and social responsibility.

No Safe Solution for Radioactive Waste and PollutionUntil today, Lynas has yet to find a safe permanent solution for its radioactive waste even though the licensing condition has set a July 2013 deadline. It is still operating under a temporary licence. By right the government should have suspended Lynas’ licence. Many of Lynas’ pollution, occupational health and safety risks and hazards identified by our experts have yet to be resolved. As Lynas pays no taxes to Malaysia, the government will end up having to resort to public fund to tackle any major disaster, long-term pollution and hazards from Lynas. In the end we the local residents and Malaysian public will be left to deal with Lynas’ mishaps and its toxic waste.

To keep our country safe and clean, we must not tolerate a hazardous project like the Lynas’ rare earth refinery plant to risk our environment, our health and our investment. The Stop Lynas campaign has gained momentum to become Malaysia’s biggest ever environmental campaign. The people in Kuantan and surrounding area delivered a convincing win to several MPs and ADUNs on the Stop Lynas election platform. We have paved the way to hold the government more accountable and transparent. We have to keep this momentum UP by making sure our elected Federal and State representatives do their job to stop Lynas!

Stop Lynas Campaign now Known Worldwide - FIGHT TILL THE ENDOur opposition to the Lynas plant is now known all over the world. There is now renewed interest from overseas on the issue and we are getting more overseas supporters. We have to show the government, Lynas and the world that we are determined to fight till the end to for a safer and cleaner future and that our campaign is moving from strength to strength. We have to show any potential buyer and investors that the Lynas plant is a liability and a high risk investment because of its poor plant construction, poor waste and pollution management plan as well as the strong and sustained public opposition to the plant.

Play your part to Stop Lynas - Act Now!

Mari Sama-Sama Membenam LYNAS ! Lebih dua tahun kita bermati-matian melawan Lynas . Kita telah bertemu dengan berbagai-bagai halangan dan kerenah . Malangnya Lynas masih kekal di Gebeng . Namun marilah kita terus melawan dengan penuh semangat untuk kepentingan masa depan generasi kita !

Lynas – Satu Mimpi Ngeri. Saham Lynas kini merudum di antara AU$0.38 ke AU$0.45 seunit berbanding dengan masa kemuncaknya AU$ 2.30 seunit awal tahun 2011 .Jelas di sini pembeli mula mencurigai Lynas . Baru-baru ini Lynas menjual nadir bumi dengan kerugian sebanyak A$5/kg berbanding kos pengeluaran sebanyak A$20/kg. Di samping itu Lynas hanya mampu menjual 117 metrik ton nadir bumi yang diproses, jauh kekurangan daripada 11, 000 metrik ton yang dianggarkan. Dalam kenyatan akhbar akhir-akhir ini Lynas telah mengaku mereka mengalami masalah peralatan menyebabkan tempoh pemprosesan lebih lama dari yang dijangka . Lynas sebenarnya kini menghadapi masalah kekurangan modal untuk menjelaskan hutangnya.
Lynas telah menarik balik saman fitnahnya terhadap Save Malaysia Stop Lynas ( SMSL ) untuk mengurangkan kos . SMSL telah mendapatkan khidmat pakar bebas dalam berbagai bidang , fakta , kejuruteraan dan sains dalam membuat justifikasi tentang permasalahan Lynas . Kita akan terus berjuang dari berbagai sudut termasuklah tindakan undang-undang di Australia .

Tidak Ada Penyelesaian Kepada Bahan Radioaktif Dan Pencemaran . Kini Lynas gagal mengemukakan penyelesaian tentang sisa radioaktif yang dihasilkannya walau pun tarikh akhirnya Julai 2013 sudah berlalu! Jadi , kempen anti Lynas mesti diteruskan . Ia perlu melibatkan semua Ahli Parlimen dan ADUN yang kita pilih di Pahang khususnya Kuantan .

LAWAN TERUS SAMPAI KE PENGHUJUNG Penentangan kita terhadap Lynas tersebar keseluruh dunia ! Kita perlu terus berjuang hingga Berjaya!

Mainkan Peranan Anda Untuk Hentikan Lynas – Bertindak Sekarang!

投资者的噩梦-莱纳斯在过去的几个月，莱纳斯的股价游走在A$0.45 与0.38之间，而在2011 年初（在我们还未推动抗争运动前），它的每股价格是A$2.30，这正反映了市场对它的投资信心！上个月莱纳斯以每公斤A$5.00，卖出了117 屯的稀土元素与市场买者，然而它每公斤的生产成本却是A$20.00！这离它原定每年生产11，000 屯的目标，差距实在是太大了！在莱纳斯最近的文告，它终于承认它正面对各种生产的拖延及设备的问题！ 德国的Bankagain机构发出‘售出’的忠告与它的投资者。 它认为莱纳斯可能面对资金短缺及赏还债务的能力。

除此之外， 莱纳斯最近也终止了它对拯救大马的诽谤诉讼。拯救大马一路来都以确凿及可信赖的科学及科技论述，针对莱纳斯稀土厂可能面对的工程及其他事项做出中肯及符合专家评估的批评。我们将继续通过在本地及澳洲的司法及所有合法的途径，推动终止莱纳斯运动，直到它撤出为止！我们也要让有意接手这间稀土厂的买家知道，我们会与所有推动绿色运动的盟友结合，确保环境与社会责任，获得它应有的关注！

迄今莱纳斯尚未提出完善的废料及污染的解决方案今年的7月是莱纳斯获得临时营运执照的第10个月。按照执照的明文规定它必须在这期限届满前，提出永久储藏具放射性的固体废料。迄今它仍然未提呈永久埋毒槽地点，照道理，政府有关当局应当撤回它的临时营运执照！在我们聘请的专家报告里头所提及的有关作业安全与可能面对的健康风险，至今尚未获得应有的解决方案。

莱纳斯获得我国政府豁免盈利税长达12年。一旦发生意外或泄漏，政府将被逼利用公众缴纳的税金，来做善后工作，亦如当地的居民将面对处理莱纳斯可能遗留下来的任何“手尾”，包括意外所造成的损失及有毒的废料！

如果要确保我们能继续生活在干净和安全的环境，我们绝对不能允许如莱纳斯的稀土厂在我们居住的周边建立！终止莱纳斯运动是我国有史以来最大的公民社会运动！居住于关丹的居民，在刚过去的第13届大选，利用了手中的一票，一举击败了支持此毒厂的所有州与国会的国阵候选人！我们开启了要政府对人民更透明及问责的风气。这只是个开始，我们有必要监督被选出来的人民代议士，尽忠职守！

终止莱纳斯运动获得了世界的关注-让我们奋斗到底！我们的终止莱纳斯运动得到了世界各地的关注与支持！最近有又有海外的一些支持者，表示密切的关怀！让我们尊重的表态，我们会继续不断的反对建立在格宾的莱纳斯稀土厂；我们也要让有意收购这间稀土厂的买家，我们绝不允许我们赖以生存的环境，受到任意污染。这间充满瑕疵和缺乏适当的废料处置方案的稀土厂，将会成为任何想接手的资本家，血本无归；因为我们会不间断的抗争， 直到它退出为止！

来吧，让我们即刻行动，扮演好我们个人应尽的角色，终止莱纳斯！

让我们终结莱纳斯吧！过去的2年，我们无休止的推动终止莱纳斯运动，也经历了不少挫折和小小的胜利，如今莱纳斯虽说工厂仍竖立在格宾工业区，它正挣扎求存。让我们继续振作起来，提起精神来捍卫我们的将来！

SMSL to join World War II Japanese Invasion Day Remembrance Ceremony

Action Alert

SMSL to join World War II Japanese Invasion Day Remembrance Ceremony

This Sunday 1st September 2013

This Sunday 1st September, SMSL will lead Kuantan residents and supporters from other parts of Malaysia to take part in the annual commemoration ceremony to be held at the Nilai Memorial Park*.

SMSL’s action is to remind Malaysians of those who fought a heroic battle and those who fell victims to Japan’s ruthless act of imperialism.  Many people today still remember the atrocities and the cruelty inflicted by the Japanese army in Malaysia from September 1st 1941 for three years and 8 months during WWII.

Post war, Japanese imperialism continues through its economic expansion.  Mitsubishi set up a polluting rare earth processing plant in Bukit Merah in Perak. It has been linked to deformities in babies and many pre-matured deaths in the surrounding villages.  The plant was eventually shutdown. Until today its toxic radioactive waste still scattered in unknown illegal dumps in the surrounding areas posing a serious health hazard to unsuspecting locals.

Sadly the Japanese seemed not to have heed lessons learnt from history.  Three major corporations - namely Sojitz Corporation, Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) and the Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFC Corporation all helped propped up the controversial Lynas rare earth processing plant near Kuantan - Details available at the bottom of this alert.

SMSL’s participation in the memorial services is to both remember our fallen heroes and victims of Japan’s imperialism as well as to remind Malaysians to continue to fight ruthless imperialism of any kind to protect our lives and our country.

Activities of the Day:

1030am: remembrance ceremony for fallen war heroes at the Nilai Memorial Park

1040am: remembrance ceremony for anti-Japanese occupation fallen heroes

1100am: Recounting the history of occupation by 2 Taiwanese war experts at the nearby Xiao En Centre (http://www.nilaimemorialpark.com/memorial.phtml?v=c)

1.00pm: memorial services ends

*Nilai Memorial Park is located at the 38th km on the KL-Seremban highway

(http://www.nilaimemorialpark.com/park.phtml?v=c&sec=55&artid=200507140009)

For further information, contact: SMSL hotline on 012-9823302

 

Connections Between Lynas Corporation and Japan

About Lynas Corporation

Lynas owns the richest known deposit of Rare Earths, also known as Lanthanides, in the world at Mount Weld, near Laverton in Western Australia. Lynas concentrates the ore mined at Mount Weld in a Concentration Plant approximately 1.5km from the mine. The ore concentrate contain radioactive thorium and uranium.

The concentrate produced by the Concentration Plant is shipped in sea containers and transported by road and ship to the east coast of Malaysia to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) within the Gebeng Industrial Estate near Kuantan in the state of Pahang in Malaysia, to process the Mount Weld concentrate through to separated Rare Earths products.

The processing and refining of rare earth is highly hazardous involving using a huge quantity of highly concentrated acids at very high temperature.  It produces huge amounts of fumes and gases, highly corrosive waste water and a massive amount of toxic radioactive waste.  To date, Lynas has yet to find a safe permanent solution to tackle its radioactive waste and pollution problems.

The Lynas project has sparked Malaysia’s biggest ever environmental campaign.  Stop Lynas campaigners and supporters have vowed to fight till the end to Stop Lynas.

The Japanese Connections

1. November 24, 2010, Sojitz Corporation and Lynas Corporation entered into a strategic alliance agreement concerning the supply of rare earths products to Japan and the expansion of Lynas rare earths project.
   See http://www.sojitz.com/en/news/2010/20101124.html
2. Wednesday, 30 March 2011, through the facilitation of Sojitz Corporation, Japanese government backed Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) provided a loan and share placement for $US325 million ($A314 million).  In exchange Lynas entered into a 10-year rare earth off take arrangement with Sojitz, supplying to an equivalent of 30% of the Japanese market.  Sojitz will act as the key supplier and distributor of Lynas’ rare earth oxides in Japan.
   See http://www.miningnews.net/storyview.asp?storyID=2383852&section=Search&sectionsource=s88

3.      In July 2011, Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group took a 9.99 per cent stake in Lynas Corporation through its equity stake in the US bank Morgan Stanley.  Mitsubishi's 9.99 per cent stake in Lynas is mainly a technical result of its decision to switch $US1.7 billion ($1.59bn) worth of convertible bonds into an equity stake in Morgan Stanley last week. Mitsubishi also holds around 4.8 million Lynas shares in its own right, amounting to 0.3 per cent of the company.  In total Mitsubishi owns close to 11 per cent stake of Lynas Corporation.

see http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/japans-mitsubishi-ufj-financial-group-buys-324m-stake-in-lynas-corp/story-e6frg9df-1226087801986

Waste plans innovative but would you bet the public's safety on them?

Lynas' Waste Plans A Toxic Pipe Dream

By Wendy Bacon

Tags:

 

• wendy bacon
 
• malaysia
• lynas
 
• LAMP

Scientists and community leaders are concerned about radioactive waste from Lynas' Malaysian plant but the company representative who took Wendy Bacon's questions brushed off the criticism

This is the second of two articles about Lynas by Wendy Bacon. Read the first here.

Australian rare earth company Lynas has always known it had a waste problem. It plans to process rare earth concentrate, imported from its mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia, at its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Malaysia. It will not only produce rare earths for export but also a huge amount of waste, including more than a million cubic metres of low level radioactive material.

Lynas was originally going to build its LAMP plant in China, which produces more than 90 per cent of global rare earths. But according to its 2007 annual report, it decided to move to Malaysia, because the Chinese government was increasing its control over production, including applying environmental standards more strictly. Lax regulation had led to what a Chinese government white paper described this year as extensive emissions of radioactive residues and heavy metals, clogged rivers, environmental pollution emergencies and accidents causing "great damage to people’s safety and health and the ecological environment".

Lynas was attracted to Malaysia because it was offered tax free status for 10 years. Its first choice was a site in the state of Terangganu where it quickly received necessary construction approvals. Then the Malaysian government asked Lynas to move south to the Gegang industrial estate which was built on a reclaimed swamp, 2.5 kilometres from the port of Kuantan in Pahang. Although the new land cost $30 million rather than $5 million, the company reported that it "had little choice but to accept this", and in any case the infrastructure at the new site was better as it was close to petrochemical plants. For its cooperation, Lynas’s tax holiday, which included all imports and dividends, was topped up to 12 years. The company told the sharemarket that it would start producing rare earths by June 2009.

New environmental approval documents were filed in January 2008. It took only five weeks for the state and local council environment departments and the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board to give the company a construction license. It is clear from the documentation that at this stage the company had only temporary plans for waste storage, had not addressed the possibility that future events including flooding could affect the safety of the site, or selected a permanent waste facility. Despite the delays, shareholders were told that production would still start in 2009. As 2012 ends, the plant — which will take months to become fully operational — received its first rare earth concentrate several weeks ago.

There is an emphasis in the the company’s glossy investor presentations and annual reports of the sustainability of its products, which are necessary for the operation of almost all electronics — from smart phones to missiles. However, there was little mention of the waste — or "residue", as Lynas prefers to call it.

Lynas and its supporters assert its operations are completely safe, but as NM reportedon Monday, others — including scientists — are less confident. Lynas relies on an IAEAreport that found it had complied with international standards in its construction phase, but needed to do more prior to operating. Lynas told New Matilda that since the IAEAreport, it has taken the "additional safety step" of placing "hydrated residues in safe, reliably engineered, elevated storage cells that are designed so that there is no possibility for any leakage of material into the environment". These storage cells will be monitored by Lynas and the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).

The IAEA also recommended that Lynas proceed no further until it had filed comprehensive plans for the permanent disposal of waste, decommissioning of the plant and remediation of the site at the end of its life. The AELB and Lynas issued a joint statement mid-way through last year stating that this work would be done before any rare earths could be imported. But then, earlier this year, the AELB jumped the gun by granting a temporary operating license which gave the company 10 months to come up with these plans. This temporary operating license was then delayed as a result of court action until November.

Shutting Down the Critics
New Matilda asked to interview the Lynas Executive Chairperson Nick Curtis but he was not available. Instead we interviewed a Lynas spokesperson who insists that the waste products of the LAMP project are "not hazardous in any way". He refers to the safety record of Lynas which in "all of its constructions … has been achieved with zero lost time injury."

When New Matilda suggested that problems are more likely to arise in the long term, even 20 or 30 years away, he replied: "I would be lying if I categorically tell you there is no risk in 20 or 30 years time from anything. What I can tell you is that the unanimous conclusion of all of the scientific experts from all of the different organisations that have investigated this material and everything else is that there will be no discernible risk for the public or anyone else from this facility."

But this is far from true.

For example, in April this year, the National Toxic Network (NTN), a community based network "working to ensure a toxic-free future for all", published a preliminary assessment of the waste steam of Lynas’s LAMP project. It was prepared by Lee Bell, a qualified environmental scientist with 20 years experience in analysis of industrial process plants, groundwater monitoring and contaminated sites. He co-chaired the Core Consultative Committee on Waste under the former Labor government in Western Australia, which reformed the state’s hazardous waste sector. Readers of his 29 pageNTN report (pdf), which was reviewed by another scientist, are likely to be concerned about the company’s environmental plans.

I asked Lynas’ spokesperson about the NTN report: "Whatever you think of it, it [the report] is a solid document. It appears to be academically referenced and it also appears to have had some form of review. If you read it, on a number of scores, you would be concerned?"

To which the Lynas spokesperson responded: "The relevant thing there is ‘appears to be’ that is a really interesting phrase … I take you to the disclaimer right at the end [of the report] — ‘Please note this information is provided as general information and comment should not be seen as professional advice’ — on the basis that it ‘appears to be well referenced’, that is a strange disclaimer to have." In response Bell explained the disclaimer is used to indicate the report is intended for public use. Most of Lynas’s reports on the other hand are not easily accessible.

The Lynas spokesman rejected an NTN claim that the LAMP’s location on a reclaimed swamp with a high rainfall is relevant to disposal of low level radioactive waste. Asked if he was aware it was a "marshy site", he said, "I have no idea". He explained that although there is a pristine fishing village and beach at Kuantan three and a half kilometres away on the coast, "if there is a risk there, it is much wider than just Lynas because the LAMP is in a petrochemical zone". In fact, the site is on a reclaimed peat swamp.

Bell doesn’t buy Lynas’ argument that their plant will be yet another structure in the petrochemical zone. "The area may well have been developed for petrochemical plants — but these do not have large tailings ponds full of low level radioactive material," he said. "Refineries usually dispose of their waste by on-site incineration or off-site disposal in stable geological areas. This is comparing chalk and cheese."

Discrediting sources is a familiar public relations tactic used by companies to protect themselves against journalists relying on their critics as sources. So NM asked if the company had prepared a response to the NTN report. The spokesperson said it had but it was "unfortunately contained material before a [Malaysian] court and I can’t share that with you".

The NTN report deals with LAMP waste steams which include non radioactive fluoride, dust particulates, gas, acidic waste water as well as more than 22,000 tonnes of low level Water Leach Purification (WLP) radioactive waste which a year. The most critical issue is the control and disposal of the WLP wastes — which for radioactive material may mean for many hundreds of years.

On the basis of specific criticisms, NTN has two main recommendations. First, that the temporary license issued by the AELB should be revoked until the issue of long term waste disposal is resolved and second, that the plant should not be allowed to operate until the release of mlliions of litres of effuent into the Balok River that runs past the site has been "further modelled and assessed".

"The lack of data on these issues (the impact on the river) means the Lynas EIA is well below international standards and insufficient for granting of operational licences," theNTN says; the LAMP temporary license would never have been granted in Australia.

Novel Solutions — But Will They Work?
Included among the documents filed for the January 2008 approval was a report prepared for Lynas by technical consultants Worley Parsons which revealed some innovative ideas for dealing with the permanent disposal problem.

Worley Parsons worked on the basis that there would more 800,000 cubic metres of the most radioactive WLP waste over 10 years. (The company has stated its mine will last for 20 years and more recently told New Matilda, 50 years). When other wastes were included, there would be 2.7 million cubic meters of waste that need permanent disposal over 10 years.

Lynas’s preferred option has always been to recycle as much of the waste as possible. If safe, recycling has environmental advantages but Worley Parson also noted that by-product production requires time and investment. It may also have little or no commercial value, although this may change over time. Neither Worley Parsons or Lynas have ever suggested that even if recycling options worked, they would account for all dangerous waste, which under a new Australian law for the disposal of radioactive waste cannot be imported back into Australia.

Worley Parsons reported that the WLP residues contain relatively high levels of the nutrients phosphorus and magnesium, which have potential agricultural uses, particularly for palm oil plantations. However, it might be hard to find buyers for fertiliser based on the recycled waste. This option has not been mentioned recently. Instead, the current preferred option is to dilute the radioactive material from 6 becquerals (Bq) to 1Bq and bury it as roadfill and in other civil engineering works.

While Lynas says it is confident in the current by-product plans, they are yet to be tested. Dr Peter Karamoskas, who has been a nuclear radiologist for 13 years and represents the Australian public on the Radiation Safety Committee of Australia’s nuclear safety agency shares none of that confidence.

Speaking on his own behalf, Karamoskas said that to be safe more than a million tons ofWLP residue with a radioactive reading of 6Bq have to be mixed with five times the amount of aggregate to reduce its reading to 1Bq. While he said that a similar process had been used in the Netherlands, the waste was far less radioactive, sitting near 1Bq, which is the threshold for safety.

Karamoskas said it has never been used with material with the LAMP WLP reading of 6Bq. He says that it is extremely unlikely to be a long term solution from a safety or economic point of view: "If this was all ready to go they would be trumpeting it in the public arena … already it looks slippery. If this was possible wouldn’t most countries around the world be doing it?" He thinks it is extremely unlikely that the road mix could be imported, other than to a country with "lax standards" because it would breach international best practice standards.

Karamoskas and the NTN operate on the precautionary principle used in European environmental regulation (and increasingly elsewhere) — you don’t go ahead until you have evidence that processes are safe, which in the case of Lynas is for thousands of years.

Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, a medical doctor and well respected Opposition socialist MP, wrote a long piece explaining the LAMP risks in Malaysian independent outlet Malaysiakini, "Is the anti-Lynas movement being unreasonable?"

"It has always been my belief that I should speak up for or against policies based on facts and principles, and not because of political expediency. To espouse something which is not true or which you do not believe in, just to make you or your party popular amounts to misleading the public and reflects a lack of respect for the public! … We should practice the "precautionary principle". If there is a risk that a particular course of action might bring adverse effects, then one should consider not embarking on that action unless there are very compelling reasons for doing so.

Lynas badmouths its critics for exaggerating LAMP safety risks, while at the same time, its own supporters exaggerate the level of safety. This week, former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed was widely reported in the Malaysian media after he slammed the critics of the project, saying the nation needed to accept that it was not harmful.

"Rare earth is not dangerous like nuclear … rare earth is not yet known to cause diseases among users of its end product," he told a Chemical Industries Council of Malaysia (CICM) dinner. The former PM seems not to understand that it is the waste from the rare earth processing, not the rare earths themselves that are radioactive. Even in Malaysia itself, the dangers of rare earth waste are well known because of tragic environmental and health damage at Bukit Merah, the site of an old Mitsubishi plant.

In the commercial world, the precautionary principle is not playing. "Resolving the residue disposal is a risk down the track," Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Terry told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last week, adding that the company’s priority in the coming months should be on getting the plant up and running and completing its first sales. The WSJ reported that Lynas has already been forced to raise A$175 million in the past month to help fund the ramp-up of output. It is also entering a much softer rare earth market than what was seen globally 12 months ago.

As Karamoskas put it, the Malaysian public should not rely on Lynas staying in business for the long haul. It needs "credible long term plans" because if Lynas does not stay in business, "the Malaysian public will be left to deal with its problems for thousands of years".

Lynas has sued members of the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas campaign  for defaming the company. This case will be heard early next year along with an appeal against the lifting of the stay on the licence and another application for a judicial review of the granting of the license lodged yesterday.

Wendy Bacon is a Contributing Editor to New Matilda, a Professor with theAustralian Centre for Independent Journalism, an activist, media researcher and blogger at WendyBacon.com She is on the board of the Pacific Media Centre.

Read Wendy Bacon's full bio