Bro braus lynascorporation mining oct2015

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Industry: FM Global - International Freight Forwarder and Lic Customs Brokers with offices in Australia, Malaysia throughout South East Asia and Indian Subcontine diverse range of personalised, reliable and competi tailored to our customers’ needs.

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Services: FM Global specialises in oil/gas and mining related s understand the remoteness associated with the mi tailoring a logistics package suitable to our client’s

Ongoing Projects: FM Global in Australia and Malaysia are providing a logistics services door-to-door for the Lynas/LAMP accommodate the movement of all cargo.

Lynas Corporation The Comeback Kid

As an integrated source of rare earths from mine to customer, Lynas has experienced highs, lows and everything in between. With a new CEO at the helm, the company is now positioned for long-term success.

Written by: Robert Spence

Produced by: Jeffrey Bailey

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C O M PA N Y N A M E

Bagging plant at Mt Weld

F

or Lynas Corporation, rare earth elements continue to create huge opportunity, and challenge.

The Australian-based company is putting the finishing touches on a considerable corporate turnaround, traveling a tough road of repositioning itself as a major player in the rare earths market, which has been historically dominated by China.

Driving the turnaround is Amanda Lacaze, appointed CEO in June 2014 . With Lacaze at the helm, 4 October 2015

Lynas is poised for a breakout year.

Back story Originally formed in 1983, Lynas has gone through a whirlwind of changes in recent years. The company undertook its first mining campaign in 2008, developing the Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, one of the largest and highest-grade known deposits of rare earths in the world. “In 2010, rare earths looked like a runaway market with the price spiking at more than six times

SECTOR

the current prices,” said Lacaze.

“Lynas raised significant funding and accelerated construction of the LAMP facility in Malaysia seeking to take advantage of this boom.”

According to Lacaze, when the rare earths bubble burst in late 2011, the company’s corporate structure and style of operations weren’t adjusted to the new market settings. In addition, ramp up of production at the LAMP facility was delayed by both operating challenges and legal challenges.

The result by the middle of last

year was a business that had consumed a huge amount of debt and equity funding in developing both the mine and the larges processing plant, but was yet to show a return on that investment.

“When I joined, production was unstable. We had high costs and were very cash consumptive. We had to reset our cost base and improve our operating performance while dealing with a market that was significantly less profitable than before.” w w w. l y n a s c o r p . c o m

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MINING GLOBAL

Rebirth of Lynas Appointed CEO in June 2014, Lacaze’s first plan of action was to establish a strategic framework to put its financial house in order.

“When I first started, Lynas had corporate offices in Sydney, KL and Perth as well as the facilities in Mt Weld and Kuantan. We decided it was best to ensure our people were co-located at our production facilities with a small number in Perth. This improved teaming and business efficiency and also deliver lower costs,” said Lacaze. “Shutting down some of the offices proved significant savings for us.”

Another critical component in the turnaround was reducing the company’s headcount.

According to Lacaze, the unpopular move can actually spark improvement.

SUPPLIER PROFILE

Amanda Lacaze, CEO and Managing Director

SIBELCO GROUP

Founded in 1872, the Sibelco Group has grown into a multinational business with more than 245 mining and production facilities worldwide. In 2012, Sibelco acquired QMAG Limited, one of the world’s most trusted producers of high grade Caustic Calcined Magnesia (CCM).

Sibelco has partnered with Lynas from early 2014 to provide our Caustic Calcined Magnesia (CCM) and is helping Lynas effectively stabilise their production process and maximise RE recoveries. At Sibelco we pride ourselves on our capabilities in operations management, process engineering and research and development. We have a team of highly qualified and experienced technical experts in the hydrometallurgical industry, who work closely with Lynas staff to improve process efficiency and increase the value in use of our magnesia.

Sibelco has a global portfolio of customers and our magnesia products are sold and delivered to over 30 countries worldwide. We provide tailored logistics solutions through our global network of service providers and the global Sibelco presence.

Through our QMAG product range, Sibelco Australia is well positioned to deliver further growth and support our magnesia customers long into the future.

Website: www.sibelco.com.au w w w. l y n a s c o r p . c o m

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LY N A S C O R P O R AT I O N

A shift supervisor turns on pumps at LAMP 8 October 2015

MINING GLOBAL

VP of Production Kam Leung stands next to concentrate ready for shipment to Malaysia

“My experience is there are many times when reducing your headcount improves your results.

When you start, people find it counterintuitive; however, when you have many people working together and they’re not fully utilized, they become accustomed to not doing their best work every day. It’s also not at all satisfying for staff to feel they don’t have productive work to do,” Lacaze said.

“We worked really hard to create a culture of performance. Quality of action is something we focus on and I’m a big believer that there is no substitute for hard work.”

With the framework for a concentrated workforce in place, production is now profitable and sales revenues continue to grow.

“As CEO, one of the most important aspects of my job is getting everyone in the Lynas team to do the best job possible,” Lacaze said.

As a sign of the good times to come, Lynas recently announced a restructure and debt agreement with its 2 lenders. The deal, according to Lacaze, is a natural next step for the company.

“We’ve come a long way: We’ve fixed production issues, we’ve improved engagement with our w w w. l y n a s c o r p . c o m

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Industry: FM Global - International Freight Forwarder and Licensed Customs Brokers with offices in Australia, Malaysia and throughout South East Asia and Indian Subcontinent, offer a diverse range of personalised, reliable and competitive services tailored to our customers’ needs.

Services: FM Global specialises in oil/gas and mining related shipments. We understand the remoteness associated with the mining industry, tailoring a logistics package suitable to our client’s requirements.

Ongoing Projects: FM Global in Australia and Malaysia are providing a full range of logistics services door-to-door for the Lynas/LAMP facilities to accommodate the movement of all cargo.

Allow us to exceed your expectations

Perth | Sydney | Melbourne | Brisbane | Adelaide Main Office: 1 Hines Road, O'Connor WA 6163 www.fmgloballogistics.com.au

Tel: +61 8 9314 2004 Fax +61 8 9314 6004 Email: sales@fmgloballogistics.com.au

LY N A S C O R P O R AT I O N

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customers, and now this new debt restructure puts us in a position to complete the turnaround.”

Driving the change For Lacaze and her team, diversity is a large contributing factor to drive positive change.

“My executive team comprises three women and 6 men. We have Australians, Malaysians and others from various European countries.

It’s a good combination with varying backgrounds,” said Lacaze. “I want diversity in our company whether it’s gender, experience, age, ethnicity. It is my experience that

SUPPLIER PROFILE

varied experience leads to richer discussions on issues and new and different ways to address business challenges.”

As surprising as it sounds, Lacaze had no prior experience in the mining industry, having spent the majority of her career focused on marketing.

“Over the past 15 years, I have primarily worked in the IT&T industry.

When I took this job many people in the industry wondered how I would run a rare earths business.

My approach is that I knew how to manage performance, and I knew how to run a profitable business. I

FM GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTY LTD

Employees: 13 Established: 1st August, 2005 Management: • Brad O’Donnell – Managing Director • Mike Fairnie – Business Development Manager • Tania Stamboulakis – Project Manager Website: www.fmgloballogistics.com.au

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Administration staff at Mt Weld

A shift supervisor instructs a tunnel furnace worker

12 October 2015

MINING GLOBAL

did need to learn about rare earths – and I made it my business to learn as much as I could from the experts in our company and at our business partners as quickly as possible,” said Lacaze.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Setting the tone For Lacaze, the job of the CEO is to cultivate the energy and spirit of the organization.

“I update all my staff every quarter on all important aspects of business performance. I do this in small groups so we can talk in detail and I can be sure that everyone knows what’s going on with the business and we build trust in each other.

People in this organization are working harder than they’ve ever done in their lives and I want them to be successful,” said Lacaze.

“The result is we bring the sum total of our experience from all those areas and therefore we’re able to have rich conversation.”

Lacaze remains very positive about the future for rare earths and for Lynas.

“Rare earth minerals are used extensively in growing markets including environmentally significant segments such as energy efficient cars and the new technology in wind turbines,” said Lacaze. “ Lynas offers users environmental assurance from mine to finished product and this will become increasingly important as the market grows.”

With the right pieces in place, Lynas Corporation is now poised to become a fully-integrated provider of rare earths for the long-term.

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Level 1, 7 Tully Road East Perth, Western Australia Australia, 6004 www.lynascorp.com