SYDNEY (Reuters) – Lynas Rare Earths is eyeing potential purchases of rare earths deposits in Malaysia and Brazil and plans to work with early-stage developers to help bring their mines online, its CEO Amanda Lacaze said on Wednesday.
The world’s largest rare earths producer outside of China is considering fresh growth options given macroeconomic uncertainties, she said at the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney.
Malaysia, where Lynas has processing operations, has a lot of the same geology that is present through much of Southeast Asia, such as Myanmar, she said. Myanmar is a significant supplier to China’s rare earths industry.
“Yes there are deposits there, yes there are deposits in Brazil. Yes we are looking at them,” Lacaze said.
On Malaysian sites, Lacaze said that any development would have to come with high environmental and sustainability standards and that Lynas was open to working alongside the companies to “put our script to work”.
“Would we like to see them developed? Yes. Will we facilitate that development? Yes,” she said.
In Australia, where Lynas’ Mt Weld deposit is located, an election at the weekend has returned to power the Labor government which had put out a policy to stockpile critical minerals such as rare earths.
That is an “uneconomic” policy, Lacaze said.
“You need to focus on developing a strong and successful business, and one which relies upon government funding to construct and then government funding to produce is probably by definition uneconomic,” she added.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has put a focus on developing rare earths deposits, having last week signed a deal with Ukraine for supply. Rare earths are used in industrial magnets and in some defence applications. But new supplies are difficult to develop and can take many years, Lacaze said.
“I sometimes want to take an ad out in the Washington Post saying, ‘Want Rare Earths? Call 1800 Lynas,” she said.
(Reporting by Christine Chen and Melanie Burton; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
