Good morning LYC believers,
Some positive developments. The plan to syphon away Chinese Heavy Rare Earths superiority and dilute their monopoly is well under construction. What is not recognised fully, for mine, is the fact LYC is so far ahead of game than its competitors.
Announcement on Thursday:
Lynas Malaysia is targeting first production of two separated Heavy Rare Earths (HRE) products in the 2025 calendar year.
Expected and nice work really. Heavy Rare Earth separation is problematic.
Article published in the AFR on Friday, by Brad Thompson, sets the scene for bigger and better things. Kindly conduct your own due diligence.
Lynas to break China’s heavy rare earths stranglehold
Lynas Rare Earths will break China’s stranglehold on the supply of materials essential in modern weapons systems and other industries in a move that underlines the company’s growing importance to the United States and other Western nations.
Lynas told investors on Thursday that it was targeting first production of two heavy rare earths – dysprosium and terbium – from its Malaysian processing plant next year.
The Lynas breakthrough comes just weeks after the federal government ordered funds associated with Chinese conglomerates to divest shares in another ASX-listed heavy rare earths company, Northern Minerals. The company’s Browns Range project in Western Australia will supply Australia’s first
fully integrated rare earths refinery.
Labor has begun taking a
harder line on Chinese investment in the critical minerals sector as it looks to grow domestic processing and develop supply chains. The Lynas heavy rare earths ore will be sourced from the company’s Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, complementing its production of light rare earths materials, and cement its position as the world’s biggest non-China supplier of the critical mineral.
Lynas currently sells dysprosium and terbium and other heavy rare earths oxides from Mt Weld to China as a mixed heavy rare earths compound.
Managing director Amanda Lacaze said Lynas was poised to break the Chinese monopoly on heavy rare earths and lessen the threat posed if Beijing opted to cut off supply to the US and its allies.
“All high-performance motors need some degree of heavy rare earths, and at present, the only source is China,” she said. Ms Lacaze said the reconfiguration of one of the solvent extraction circuits at the Kuantan plant in Malaysia would allow Lynas to process heavy rare earths ore from Mount Weld as well as ionic clay deposits in Australia and potentially Malaysia.
The new circuit is designed with capacity to separate up to 1500 tonnes of mixed heavy rare earths compound a year, and is being built at a cost of $25 million. Dysprosium and terbium are essential to permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and high-tech applications for all electronic devices.
Lockheed Martin, for instance, uses the heavy rare earths in its F-35 fighter jets.
China banned the export of rare earth extraction and separation technologies in December in a move to protect its market dominance, and has previously threatened to cut off supply to the US.
The US military is funding a Lynas downstream processing plant in Texas, and the company must be able to supply both heavy and light rare earths as part of that deal. Ms Lacaze said uncertainty over Lynas’ licence to operate in Malaysia had played a part in delaying a move into heavy rare earth separation at its Kuantan plant.
“Now that we’ve got clarity on that, then our pathway for investment is clear,” she said. It will also enable Lynas to start producing dysprosium and terbium much sooner than it could from a plant in Texas. “The plant in Texas is a larger plant, and it is a greenfield site, so it will necessarily take longer to complete that,” Ms Lacaze said. “In Malaysia, we have a brownfield site, and we have the ability to do this very cost effectively by repurposing existing equipment.”
The move could also see Lynas reconsider mine plans at Mount Weld, with the focus potentially shifting to areas holding more heavy rare earths. It might also prompt the company to bid for one of the ionic clay players listed on the ASX.
Asked about the prospect of consolidation in Western rare earths supply in April, Ms Lacaze left the
door open for a deal between Lynas and Las Vegas-headquartered MP Materials, which both have mining billionaire Gina Rinehart as a major shareholder.
“We have talked about the value of having a Western rare earths champion with real critical mass,” she said of the merger discussions, which were first revealed by
The Australian Financial Review.
“For whatever reasons, as it turned out the time was not quite right, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be at some stage.”