Lynas confirms plan to expand outside Malaysia and has met the WA EPA to discuss secondary processing according to the SMH.
Might be worth phoning the company to confirm, you never really know with the SMH
My guess is Lynas are simply covering all bases.
Here it is for what it’s worth anyway:
Lynas looks to WA, not Wesfarmers, for its Malay solution
Western Australia might hold the key to Lynas Corp's future despite the rare earths miner rejecting a $1.5 billion takeover offer from Perth-based Wesfarmers on Wednesday.
WA’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) confirmed it had recently met with the company to discuss approvals, including secondary processing in the state.
“These discussions are preliminary in nature and no formal submission for any change has been presented to the EPA,” a spokeswoman for the agency said.
The discussions could help solve the problems in Malaysia which threaten the company's future, and made it vulnerable to what analysts and investors described as a low-ball bid from Wesfarmers on Tuesday.
Lynas faces an uncertain future after the Malaysian government imposed strict new conditions on its billion-dollar Malaysian operation which could force it to shut down in September.
This includes the permanent removal of a residue with naturally occurring radiation, Water Leached Purification Residue (WLP), from Malaysia.
According to institutional investors, Lynas discussed plans last month to relocate some of its rare earths processing back to Western Australia. All processing is currently handled in Malaysia.
Lynas chief executive Amanda Lacaze denied there was any plan to extract and retain the controversial WLP residue in WA - the state where it is mined - but did confirm it planned to expand its processing operations outside of Malaysia.
She confirmed that Western Australia was a contender.
"We operate in a growth industry and we are looking at how we grow our business with the market," Ms Lacaze said.
According to the EPA, in February 2017 the rare earths miner applied to make changes to conditions of its rare earths operation at its Mt Weld mine in Laverton, 700 kilometres north east of Perth, and "secondary processing" at Meenar in the Shire of Northam 100km north east of Perth.
Lynas received approval for the mine and Meenar processing facility in 1998, but decided to set up its processing plant in Malaysia instead.
Anti-nuclear groups had fought the facility in both countries over concerns about rare earths radioactive by-product thorium.
Speaking of the approvals, Ms Lacaze said "it's not something that we have specifically refreshed for any purpose".
On Wednesday, Ms Lacaze played down the Wesfarmers bid, saying the highly conditional nature of the approach meant there was "nothing substantive with which to engage".
"This business is not for sale," she told the media after the company said "it will not engage with Wesfarmers on the terms outlined in the indicative and highly conditional proposal".
Lynas said its key assets included its position as "the only significant" rare earths miner and processor outside of China, and its Mt Weld ore body - a long life Tier 1 asset.
The $2.25 per share cash bid was described by multiple analysts as "opportunistic", given it came at a time when the Lynas share price was significantly down on earlier levels.
The stock was trading above $2.20 in early December, but in recent weeks before the Wesfarmers bid emerged it was as low as $1.54.
Analysts covering Wesfarmers were also unimpressed.
In a note to clients, David Errington, an analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said he was "ambivalent (at best)" about the Wesfarmers offer.
"On current financials, the acquisition of Lynas looks underwhelming," he said.
"We think that any acquisition should either stand out in terms of the underlying fundamental driver to do the acquisition, or it is financially compelling. Our concern with this acquisition is that it looks to us (at this point in time) to be neither,” he said.
Mr Errington said Wesfarmers was looking at “long duration assets” and seemed prepared to dilute earnings over a two to three-year period, “for what it sees as the right long-term opportunity”.
Credit Suisse analyst Grant Saligari said the Wesfarmers move appeared to be "in line with its approach of looking at businesses with favourable industry characteristics and potentially mispriced on short-term factors".
Mr Saligari said retention of key Lynas management personnel was an important consideration as was the regulatory situation in Malaysia. "In relation to the latter, Wesfarmers should bring significant regulatory and political capability as well as long-term funding certainty," he said.
Investment bank UBS is advising Wesfarmers on its proposed acquisition of Lynas, and is a long-term adviser to Wesfarmers.
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