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Rare-earth corp defends environmental cred Hans Lovejoy
Bentley banner bound for Canberra Q See the video on this at
Two banners were unfurled in Byron last week in support of the Bentley blockade, just as the protector’s camp near Lismore began to pack down their site. Photo Jeff Dawson
Three people’s flags are destined for Canberra to highlight public opposition to the expanding fossil fuel industry and unwelcome gas exploration on prime farming land. The first flag was started by musician Xavier Rudd at
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Bentley; the flag was then signed by hundreds of Bentley protesters and it then went to Nimbin, Bellingen and Coffs Harbour. A second flag was started by children at Bentley. The third was started in Byron last week.
Invite-only holiday letting forum to be held – again As part of its push to formalise holiday letting, Byron Shire Council will hold an inviteonly workshop on May 27. It follows on from last November’s closed forum, and the Holiday Letting Strategy Discussion Paper says, ‘Council would like to continue the dialogue with you as a representative of a key stakeholder group’ in developing Council’s holiday letting strategy.
The letter says the forum will inform the strategy’s development, ‘culminating in an amendment to Council’s Local Environmental Plan to give effect to the planning control provisions.’ One of Council’s ‘key messages’ is that regulating holiday letting may mean that holiday let owners/managers may have to pay development costs and/or business rates.
Council also acknowledged in the paper that ‘holiday letting is an important component to Byron’s tourist accommodation market and thus the economy.’ A ‘key stakeholder’ handed the invitation over to The Echo, ‘in the interests of transparency.’ They added, ‘the public should be informed about what Council is considering.’
Australia’s only rare-earth company, Lynas, has told The Echo that last week’s article on the Greens Party, entitled ‘One rainy night in Mullum,’ contained ‘factual inaccuracies and misleading statements.’ Rare-earth minerals are the raw materials used for the manufacture of renewable energy items such as wind turbines, hybrid car batteries, solar panels, circuit boards and magnets. And while rare-earth minerals are also used to manufacture parts for cruise missiles and iPhones, their extraction is known to be associated with highly toxic materials such as uranium and thorium. Lynas’s executive vicepresident of corporate affairs, Alan Jury, said that contrary to the statement that Lynas was forced to shift its operations to Malaysia owing to opposition from ‘all political parties’, Lynas possessed regulatory approvals to build its refining operations in Australia and received support
from the major parties. He said, ‘Lynas decided to locate its refining process in a Malaysian industrial park owing to access to the abundant supply of electricity, water, relevant technical expertise and chemical inputs for the refining process that were not readily or competitively available in the Western Australian desert.’
Radioactivity low Mr Jury also said that senator Ludlam’s statement that Lynas’s rare earths are ‘radioactive sludge shipped in plastic bags’ was misleading. ‘The radioactivity in Lynas’s rare earths is so low that it is prevented, by transport regulations, from applying a radioactive placard to the load. ‘If every product that was radioactive required similar treatment, then bananas, stone benchtops and garden fertilisers would require similar signage.’ Regarding public opposition in Malaysia, Mr Jury said the company had been ‘active within the community,’ and
cited various meetings with local community groups, NGOs and academics. He maintains that the Malaysian plant poses no health risks and that naturally occurring radiation in the waste will be reduced to almost zero and made into roadfill, fertiliser and the like. ‘Waste that doesn’t get used ends up in temporary storage ponds next to the plant,’ he said. ‘These have leak detectors and are lined and raised. It’s not a simple “pond”.’
Anti-Lynas seats won in Malaysia Yet ABC reported last year that candidates ‘running on an anti-Lynas platform won a raft of seats around the plant, in the May general election’. Bloomberg listed Lynas as the worst performer this year among its index of 11 rareearths producers and explorers and it lost more than $107 million last financial year. Lynas’s processing plant in Malaysia started producing late last year, according to Mr Jury.
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6 May 27, 2014 The Byron Shire Echo
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au