RE:Lynas Corp hit an early snag in Environmental Approvals"Lynas Corporation has hit an early snag in the environmental approvals process after submitting its plans for a rare earths processing plant and associated storage of low-level radioactive waste in Western Australia.
The Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE) has suspended its time frame for making a decision on the Lynas plans.
A department notice said the revised statutory time frame for what the Morrison government and other nations regard as a strategically important project is now 15 business days after it receives additional information requested from Lynas.
The request for additional information has come come from a delegate of Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
Ms Ley declined to answer questions about the nature of the additional information.
Lynas, which is due to release its full-year results on Monday, also declined to comment.
The company's approval application and supporting documents confirm it is racing against the clock to build and commission a cracking and leaching plant at Kalgoorlie after being ordered to stop producing low-level radioactive waste at its operations in Malaysia.
Lynas, the world's biggest non-China producer, is aiming to truck rare earths from its Mt Weld mine near Laverton to the Kalgoorlie plant before sending the semi-processed material on to Malaysia.
A consultant's report commissioned by Lynas says the company has been advised by DAWE that because of the naturally occurring radioactive materials present in rare earths concentrate and in an iron phosphate by-product, its proposal may trigger the definition of "nuclear action” under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act."