FROM the other side of the fence behind the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP) in Pahang, two mounds of powdered waste, each about 4m high, are standing in the shade. There are the beginnings of a third pile. The air smells strongly of sulphur.

These are mounds of naturalisation underflow residue (NUF) which is left after rare earths are processed into oxides, chlorides and carbonates, said Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas (SMSL) chairman Tan Bun Teet, who knows the land around the perimeter of the plant in Gebeng Industrial Park like the back of his hand.

Now that its operating licence has been extended by six months,  the 1.2 million tonnes of such waste at the plant will continue to pile up, he told The Malaysian Insight during an unofficial “guided tour” of the site.

“According to its proposed plans, Lynas wants to grow the mounds to 34m high,” said Tan.

He called the conditional licence extension a “compromise” on the part of the government to appease the anti-Lynas public.

“The government won’t be seen as completely acceding to Lynas. But the real (motive) is to enable Lynas to continue to operate for the next four years as the government’s first condition is that Lynas will need four years to build a cracking and leaching facility in Western Australia,” said the 71-year-old retired mathematics teacher.

SMSL is protesting Putrajaya’s decision on the six-month extension this morning with a rally at Taman Gelora in Kuantan. Police say the protest has not been approved but Tan, a grandfather of six, is undeterred.

Although the extension is for six months, Tan considers it “tacit approval” for LAMP to continue operating for four years.

“If the six months is not extended later on, how is Lynas going to build the facility and satisfy the condition given by the government?” 

Tan gathers his information on Lynas from the Australian mining company’s annual general meetings, three of which he has attended in Sydney in recent years. He bought ten shares in the company just so he could qualify to attend AGMs, in order to track the mining firm’s developments and its plans for LAMP.

He also tracks Lynas’ filings to the Australian Stock Exchange.

“Although the (Malaysian) government did not say that it had accepted Lynas’ proposal, the company had already announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that Malaysia will allow it to stack up the NUF to 34m covering 39ha of land. 

“This is the entire backyard of Lynas.”

Tan said Lynas is planning to produce the more costly metal neodymium praseodymium (NdPr), instead of lanthanum. 

NdPr fetches US$45 per kg compared to lanthanum’s US$1.29 per kg.

This also means an increase in the volume of NUF and water leach purification (WLP) waste generated by the plant. 

Tan said from tracking the wastes generated by LAMP, he believes that it is understated by some 30%.

“Given another four years of operations, they will double what we have now. And this will be a huge burden on Lynas to build a permanent disposal facility (PDF) that is big enough to store these wastes.”

The problem with NUF

One of Putrajaya’s conditions for its six-month licence extension is that Lynas must identify a site for a PDF, or show that it has the relevant approvals to move its WLP residue out of Malaysia.

Tan noted that the Atomic Energy Licensing Board’s (AELB) did not mention NUF waste but only WLP residue in its announcement of the conditions for the licence.

Tan says the AELB may have told Lynas to stop its research and development on turning WLP into Condisoil, a product for agriculture, but it has not stopped the company on its research into recycling NUF.

“This is why Lynas has been allowed to stack up the NUF,” he said.

From news reports on Lynas’ press statements, there are plans by the mining firm to commercialise NUF for use as a soil ameliorant to enhance crop productivity.

In March, Lynas said it was planning to build a secure landfill to store NUF while waiting for approval for its commercialisation. 

On its website, Lynas says that NUF “has been proven to be non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, non-ecotoxic and non-radioactive”.

WLP, while classified as radioactive, is considered a “low level radioactive material”.

The website also gives a clue to why Lynas Malaysia had not prepared a PDF in all the years since LAMP began operations in late-2012 – because it was banking on finding a commercial use for WLP and NUF.

“Although Lynas is required to plan and site a PDF as an additional assurance in dealing with Lynas residues, the success of our commercialisation program to date has reduced the likelihood that a PDF will be required,” it said.

According to Tan, WLP is hazardous as it contains 1,652 ppm to 1,952 ppm of thorium, equivalent 7.98 becquerel.

Thorium is considered radioactive and takes 14 billion years to disintegrate.

“As thorium disintegrates it releases ionising rays that can cause cells to mutate and hence cancer.

“As for NUF, it has a lot of heavy metals such as mercury, chromium etc and if this gets into our water supply it would be dangerous to health in the long run too,” said Tan.

Tan, who has been campaigning against LAMP issue since 2011, a year before the plant began operations, said that activists are not against the refinery itself.

But Lynas, he alleged, had not fulfilled its end of the bargain on the subject of waste treatment.

“It should have built extra facilities to keep the waste and not expose it to the biosphere or to let it stack up to millions of tonnes. This is a practice that would not be allowed in any country, especially in Australia.”

Although the government’s decision to extend Lynas’ licence was disappointing, Tan is not disheartened.

“We’ll just have to soldier on and monitor LAMP and the government. For us, the fight is not over yet.” 

The Malaysian Insight has yet to receive a response from Lynas to a request for an interview. – August 18, 2019.