Foreign Media: Lynas, Australia's Rare Earth Company, Breaks China's Monopoly
International – In a factory in Malaysia, hundreds of large sacks are ready to be shipped: each filled with finely sorted rare earth elements, symbolizing Australia’s Lynas Corporation’s ambitious goal to challenge China’s dominant position in these critical mineral markets.
A yellow forklift shuttles busily around the bulging, one-ton sacks, each with handles of different colors indicating their contents—neodymium, praseodymium, lanthanum, and others. These metallic elements belong to the 17 rare earth elements—actually not rare at all, but difficult and costly to extract—used in manufacturing permanent magnets, which are widely applied across numerous economic sectors including automobiles, electronics, wind power, aerospace, and defense, even fighter jets. These rare earth elements are crucial to technology and have become a focal point in the U.S.-China trade war.
China mines about 60% of the world’s rare earths and refines approximately 90%. As many countries seek alternatives to Chinese rare earth supplies, global leading non-Chinese rare earth producer Lynas Limited aims to reduce dependency on Beijing and increase its share in the rare earth supply chain (currently around 10%). CEO Amanda Lacaze told AFP: "China’s success is built on clear industrial planning, which forces us to take this issue seriously."
To break China’s dominance, Lynas needs "focused and precise planning," she explained during a press conference held at its plant in Gebeng, Malaysia.
The rare earth processing facility, located near the coastal city of Kuantan (eastern region), is the world’s largest integrated plant where all production stages are consolidated under one roof. Ms. Lacaze said that thanks to its new facilities, Lynas has already "broken China’s monopoly over light rare earths in 2013 and over heavy rare earths in May of last year."
Since 2012, this chemical plant has been using complex and precise separation processes to extract pure metals from raw materials mined at Western Australia’s mines. Currently, the plant processes 11 out of the 17 rare earth elements and plans to expand further to include heavier elements such as yttrium and lutetium, which are used in lasers, medical imaging, and cancer treatments.
The metal powders produced at the factory are bagged and transported to Port Klang at the other end of Malaysia, then shipped weekly to Japan, where they are processed into magnets.
Most of the metal powder consists of NdPr (neodymium-praseodymium), a mixture of rare earth elements and a vital magnetic material, priced at about $100,000 per bag. Other minor heavy rare earth oxides, such as dysprosium, terbium, and samarium, are sold in 25-kilogram drums.
Lynas Chief Operating Officer Pol Le Roux said that for the company, the challenge isn’t capacity. He told AFP that incentives are needed to stimulate downstream capacity, as it “is growing too slowly.” In response, Ms. Lacaze stated that her company has already established partnerships with magnet manufacturers to bridge the gap between rare earth processing and component production.
Source: rfi
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1863225180860426/
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