A WESTERN Australian minister has ruled out the possibility of importing radioactive waste from Lynas Corp’s refinery in Malaysia, casting further doubt over the future of the rare earth refinery in Kuantan, reported The Australian newspaper.

Mining minister Bill Johnston said despite calls by Lynas critics for the company to send its radioactive waste back to Western Australia (WA), where Lynas mines its rare earth ore, the state has laws ruling out such a move.

“We won’t accept waste from overseas,” Johnston told The Australian.

Lynas, which has rejected a A$1.5 billion takeover proposal from mining conglomerate Wesfarmers, remains in a regulatory limbo on the future of its Malaysian plant.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced last month that Lynas will now need to carry out the early stage processing of its rare earths ore back in Australia.

Those early stages, which now take place at the Kuantan plant, produce radioactive material that has become a source of controversy for the company.

Lynas’s operating licence in Malaysia expires in September, but there has been little clarity about its fate.

Johnston said the WA government was open to discussing any proposal from Lynas or Wesfarmers for rare earth processing back in WA.

“Generally speaking, the best place for contaminated material is where it comes from, which in this case would be in the mine void, but we are not going to take mine waste back from overseas,” he said.

“If companies come forward with a proposal to do processing here in Western Australia then we’ll have a discussion about how to handle the contaminated mine waste.”

A spokesman for Lynas said the company was still in talks with Putrajaya.

“We are confident that we can meet the requirements outlined by the Prime Minister, and we are currently discussing our plans with the government,” she was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Lynas’ shares have fallen 31% since December following the risk of closure of its Kuantan plant.

In December, the plant was temporarily shut down after failing to secure government approval to increase output.

Putrajaya is expected to release a formal statement clarifying the conditions for Lynas’ licence renewal, which include the removal of 450,000 tonnes of radioactive waste which has been accumulating since 2012.  – May 6, 2019.