The first rare earth ore processing refinery to be built outside of China in nearly 30 years will soon be the world’s largest such refinery. The site of the refinery is Kuantan, Malaysia, although the ore itself will come from deep in the Australian desert, 2,500 miles away. Rare earth metals are increasingly vital to high-tech manufacturing, and Malaysia hopes the promised global rewards of building such a facility – the refinery could eventually generate exports that would equal nearly one percent of the entire Malaysian economy – will outweigh the local environmental risks. Refining rare earth ore usually leaves thousands of tons of low-level radioactive waste behind, as Malaysia found out a few decades ago – it’s last rare earth refinery is now one of Asia’s largest radioactive waste cleanup sites. Lynas, the Australian mining company that is building the refinery, says the facility should be able to meet nearly a third of the world’s demand for rare earth minerals – not including China, which has its own supplies – within two years. Building such a refinery in Australia would cost four times as much to build and operate, due to Australia’s higher labor and construction costs. Australia also is home to the environmentally minded and politically powerful Green Party. The Malaysian government was eager for investment by Lynas, despite the potential hazards, offering a 12-year tax holiday to the company. Lynas claims the new facility will be much cleaner and safer than the previous plant, but the long-term storage of the radioactive thorium waste remains unresolved. The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/business/energy-environment/09rare.html