Lynas Rare Earths’ slows its roll on Texas plans Uncle Sam is keen to throw money at

Lynas Rare Earths says it wants to start building a rare earths refinery in Texas, yet the Perth-based major has not filed an application for a crucial permit that can take “two or more years” to obtain. The proposed Seadrift facility has been touted to play a big role in breaking Chinese domination of the global supply chain for rare earth elements. These elements are used to manufacture high-tech weaponry, like laser-guided bombs and missiles, leaving the Western World’s security apparatus susceptible to China’s market stranglehold. The United States Department of Defence will contribute $US288 million ($442m) to develop Seadrift, with a view the construction will be finished by mid-2026. Lynas bought the southern Texas site in July last year from Dow and planned to turn first sod before the end of this year. However, a “permitting issue has arisen related to wastewater management”, the company said last month. “The earthworks which were previously planned to commence in 2024 are on hold while the permitting issue is considered.” Lynas will need to get a wastewater management permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — the Lone Star State’s equivalent of WA’s Environmental Protection Authority — for the project to proceed. A spokeswoman from the TCEQ on November 15 told The West Australian Lynas had not received the permit, nor had an application been submitted. A Lynas spokeswoman said “some approvals occur faster than expected while others take more time than expected”. “In relation to the Seadrift site, we promptly received the federal National Environmental Policy Act environmental approval, the current issue relates to the sequencing of wastewater management permits,” she told The West. “We are engaged with relevant stakeholders and the issue is being worked through.” But she did not shed any light as to why the TCEQ application specifically had not been submitted. The NEPA approval was granted in January this year. Perales, Allmon & Ice partner Lauren Ice, who specialises in Texan environmental law, gave a public presentation about the TCEQ’s wastewater permitting process last year. “The process, from start to finish, can take two years or more,” Ms Ice said. The TCEQ has no set timeframe for how long the process takes, but it states on various documents the permit application should be submitted “at least 330 days” before the first wastewater discharge occurs. Lynas’ Texas foray was seen by many as a hedge against a tenuous licensing situation in Malaysia, where the company operates a huge rare earths processing facility. The Amanda Lacaze-led miner in October last year had a looming ban squashed by Malaysia’s government. The ban was set to take effect at the start of 2024 and would have stopped the company importing the radioactive raw material from WA that is fed into the Malaysian rare earths refinery. The Seadrift proposal has been geared towards producing heavy rare earths, which have a higher atomic weight than their ‘light’ counterparts and are less common — making them the more geopolitically important subset of rare earth elements. In June this year Lynas signalled its confidence in the Malaysian operation’s future by announcing an investment of $25 million to reconfigure its processing plant in the South-East Asian country. This reconfiguration would allow it to generate Dysprosium and Terbium — two elements of the ‘heavy’ rare earth family — starting sometime next year.