hanrahan@piefed.social 1 week ago
Meanwhile Lynas, the mining company and the largest non-Chinese rare earths company, refines its metals in Malaysia.
This is because Lynas couldn’t get permission some 20 years ago to refine in Australia as the waste from processing rare earths is always super toxic and radioactive. Malaysia spat the dummy in 2023 and said the cracking and leeching could no longer be done in Malaysia or they’d shit the plant as its too toxic
The cracking and leaching generates radioactive wastes, which is the most polluting and controversial part of Lynas production. Before 2023, the cracking and leaching was done in Malaysia. However, the radioactive wastes produced in this stage was unacceptable to Malaysia, so the Malaysian Government required Lynas to relocate it or the entire plant would be shut down. In order to ensure the integrity of the rare earths production, Lynas had no choice but to move its cracking and leaching facility to Kalgoorlie.
The water supply has also been a controversial issue since the Kalgoorlie facility began its operation. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder signed a 30-year deal with Lynas and agreed to the annual supply of up to 1.7 gigalitres of recycled water, which left Australias biggest island cities facing severe water shortages.
It has generated much more discontent and controversy as the Australian Government and Lynas decline to disclose details of the deal.
Mutiple times the waste dams have overflowed and released toxic shit into Mayasia river sysyems, to the point they were threatened with closure a few times
Why we do this stupid shit in a monsoon area is just another data point on the human stupidity graph, the Ranger Uranium mine is another example, their tailings dam must fail eventually.