Lynas
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| Public ASX: LYC | |
| Industry | Mining |
| Predecessor | Yilgangi Gold NL |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Founder | Nicholas Curtis |
| Headquarters | Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd, PT17212, Jalan Gebeng 3, Kawasan Perindustrian Gebeng, 26080 Kuantan, Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia, Sydney, Australia |
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Area served
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Australia, Malaysia |
| Products | rare earth metals |
| Website | www.lynascorp.com |
For people with the surname, see Lynas (surname).
Lynas Corporation, Ltd. is an Australian rare earths mining company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as a S&P/ASX 200 company. It has two major operations: a mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld, Western Australia, and a refining facility at Kuantan, Malaysia.
The company was founded in 1983 as Yilgangi Gold NL. The company took on the Lynas name in 1985. It became publicly listed in 1986 on the ASX. In 2001, it sold off its gold division and focused on rare earths.
Lynas was founded by Nicholas Curtis, a former executive director at Macquarie Group Ltd.
Mount Weld contains one of the largest and highest grade known deposits of rare earths. The deposit is additionally unusual because it contains very low levels of thorium, a radioactive contaminant commonly found together with rare earth elements. The combination of large resource, high grades and low thorium contamination make it a particularly attractive commercial proposition. The ore produced at Mount Weld is concentrated onsite and is intended to then be shipped to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Malaysia for refining.
In May 2009 Lynas was offered funding of $252 million by the Chinese state-owned China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., which would have taken a 51.6% stake in the company. However the deal was scrapped by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board on concern it would threaten supply to non-Chinese buyers. Lynas later raised $450 million in a share sale.
In November 2010, it signed an agreement with the Japanese rare earths trading company Sojitz to export $350 million worth of rare earth minerals from its mine in Mount Weld.
First shipments of concentrate to Malaysia have reached the LAMP late November 2012.
In April 2011, Lynas was attempting to sell its Crown polymetallic deposit (which is particularly prospective for niobium) at Mount Weld to Forge Resources. Forge, a company listed on the ASX, also shares the one and only common Director and CEO of Lynas, Nicholas Curtis, although former Lynas executive director Harry Wang is also involved with Forge and the transaction. In a 2007 Company presentation, Lynas claimed that the Crown deposit was worth $50 billion () but have valued it at $20.7 million for sale to Forge. Curtis as a director of Forge would receive a 24,000,000 performance shares if the deal between Lynas and Forge proceeds. Certain commentators and journalists have called into question the regulatory oversight of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) as to the legality of such a proposal, but were proven to have been uninformed or alarmist because the proposal was always subject to the approval of independent shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). The EGM was cancelled by Lynas after shareholder opposition to the proposal became apparent, and the Crown polymetallic deposit remains owned by Lynas.
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Wikipedia