RARE earth refiner Lynas Corporation said it wanted a fair review of its operations, since the company had not been judged fairly in the news for in past weeks.

Its chief executive officer and managing director Amanda Lacaze said the company was not getting a “fair go” and called for the review of its operation to be fair.  

She said Lynas had always prioritised the safety of its staff and that its members had always embraced a “zero harm” policy in its work ethics.  

“We feel some of the comments in the press. We are just not getting a fair go. It does not seem right.  

“Today we are making a public appeal for any review to be fair,” Lacaze said in a press conference at Kuala Lumpur today.  

Lynas has been operating a rare earth processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan since 2012.  

It was reported that a Lynas evaluation committee had been set up, with Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, also a deputy minister in the prime minister’s department, appointed as its chairman under a three-month tenure that started on Monday.

Fuziah is a strident critic of the plant and had campaigned against it based on health fears expressed by her constituents.

Lacaze also said the storage facilities for waste material were in line with the deposit facility’s standards and had low radiation.

“A pilot or flight crew members are exposed to more radiation in a year than what our staff get in the same time,” said Lacaze.

When asked if the company would set up a new plant outside the country, Lacaze said it would like to stay in Malaysia and was heavily committed to the country.

“It is a stable environment and we have a terrific workforce. We are close to our markets.”

Lacaze said 650 of its employees will be affected if the plant shuts down, as well as a thousand others indirectly involved in its operations..

Out of the 650 employees, 97% of them are Malaysian, 70% of which hold manager positions in the company.

She said Lynas had not gotten an official notification from the government on the review.

Lacaze also said that she hoped the company would be given time to adapt to changes the government might implement to its operations.

Yesterday, the Malaysia Australia Business Council called for all reviews into Lynas’ Malaysian operations to be made public, transparent, objective, and evidence-based, in the interest of maintaining investor confidence.

The council said Lynas should be given the opportunity to publicly defend its regulatory and environmental record from when it commenced operations in 2012. – October 2, 2018.