grant a deadline extension for Lynas to find a permanent home for the toxic waste that is currently being stored at the company’s plant in the country’s east coast. Accordingly, the third-September deadline to start work on a permanent disposal facility (PDF) to get rid of more than 500,000 tonnes of the waste has been extended to March next year.
According to the company’s CEO and Managing Director Amanda Lacaze, the extension was granted in light of some of the COVID-19 constraints under which Lynas has been operating in Malaysia. So far, the mining giant has recognised the vacant land next to its processing plant at Kuantan as a favoured site to set up the PDF, as the ASX-listed company continues to race against the clock as critics in Malaysia maintain the rage against its cracking and leaching of rare earths, the process which produces the waste.
The rare-earths producer has faced opposition from environmental campaigners ever since the construction of its processing plant in Kuantan began in 2010. Currently, anti-Lynas activists are attempting to overturn a ruling issued by the High Court of Malaysia that was granted in favour of Lynas and the company said it plans to defend the appeal following five previous legal victories over these activists.
