KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — A nationwide campaign to stop Lynas heads into the courtroom with damaging allegations against the Australian rare earths producer and Malaysia’s regulators.
The court filing also accuses Lynas of economic imperialism and points out that until today it does not have a plan to permanently dispose of its waste, some which contain potentially harmful levels of radiation.
A group of 10 Pahang residents have challenged the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), the director-general of Environmental Quality in the Department of Environment (DoE) and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd in court today for ignoring public pleas to cancel the radioactive rare earths project they say is endangering their lives and livelihood.
The 10 applicants — who live between 3km and 18km of the RM2.5 billion Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP) site in coastal Gebeng on the outskirts of Kuantan — accused government authorities of breaching the Federal Constitution and other regulatory laws in return of a certain cut in revenue from the Sydney-based mining giant, according to court papers of the case obtained by The Malaysian Insider, which are to be filed electronically with the High Court today.
The AELB’s decision is in breach of several Federal Constitution provisions, in particular Articles 5(1), 8 and 13(1) which deal with freedom, equality and rights to property respectively.
They want the court to issue orders to cancel AELB’s award of a temporary operating licence (TOL) to Lynas on January 30, which will enable the latter to fire up its refinery soon.
Production at LAMP, reportedly the world’s biggest rare earth refinery, is expected to start as early as April.
But Lynas said last week it expects the start of operations to be delayed to the second quarter from the first quarter of this year.
The residents also want a court order to bar the AELB from issuing any more licences, whether temporary or permanent, to Lynas unless and until it hands in a detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) report to the government’s environmental watchdog, which must be approved.
In their application, they asked too the court to suspend the existing TOL pending the hearing.
…more
A year on, anti-Lynas campaign goes to court
February 17, 2012 -TMI
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