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Dengkil, Malaysia. The government reassured Malaysians yesterday that it will keep a close eye on a controversial rare earth plant, even though the facility has been given a temporary licence to start work.

Production at the plant in Kuantan will be “very controlled and closely monitored,” said Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director-general Raja Aziz Raja Adnan.

He said the plant’s two-year provisional licence was necessary for the authorities to verify claims made by the operator, Australian miner Lynas, in its safety reports. He added that once operations begin, it will be easier to judge if the plant is indeed safe.

“We’re here to guarantee the safety of the public, the environment and the plant’s workers,” said Datuk Raja Aziz, in his first media briefing since his agency granted Lynas the licence on Wednesday.

The Lynas plant will be one of the few sites outside China to process rare earths — metals used in high-tech equipment like smartphones — and could generate billions of ringgit for Malaysia’s economy.

Despite claims by the company that its refinery will be safe, people have continued to oppose the plant since news of it first became public last year. This has been fuelled by claims that radioactive waste from the last rare earth refinery in the country, in Perak, had caused birth defects and leukaemia among residents in the area in the 1980s.

A series of rallies for this month has already been announced by Kuantan residents and environmentalists, in response to the granting of the temporary licence.

AELB yesterday denied that it was ignoring feedback about the plant. It pointed out that it had held numerous forums with local residents and sought public views.

Still, such engagement “cannot be seen as a survey,” Raja Aziz said, and arguments against the plant should not be made “without substantiated facts.”

The board’s approval, he noted, was given after reviewing Lynas’ proposal from a “technical and legal” standpoint.

Raja Aziz also said that before the refinery can be fired up, the first of five installments of $10 million each will have to be paid. As one of the conditions for issuing the temporary licence, AELB had required Lynas to pay $50 million to the Malaysian government as a financial guarantee.

He said it will also appoint, hopefully by this month, an independent third party to monitor the plant’s operations. The RM700 million refinery is expected to start operations by the second quarter this year.

One group of opponents says it will file a court injunction to stop that happening. Another, called Save Malaysia Stop Lynas, said on Thursday that “a change of government is the only safe solution for Malaysia.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.