The Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) share price has jumped more than 10% after the ASX mining share revealed some positive Malaysian news.
Malaysian operating licence update
Lynas Malaysia has been advised that its licence to import and process lanthanide concentrate is now valid until 1 January 2024.
This change was made by the Minister of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in response to the appeals filed by Lynas earlier this year.
The licence variation allows the Lynas Malaysia cracking and leaching plant to continue to operate until 1 January 2024 and will remove the requirement for a shutdown at the Lynas Malaysia plant prior to 1 January 2024.
Lynas had applied to the minister for the removal of the conditions which limit operations at the Malaysian facility as they “represent a significant variation of the conditions under which Lynas made the initial decision to invest in Malaysia”.
On top of that, Lynas pointed out that the conditions do not follow the recommendations of the Malaysian Government’s 2018 Executive Review Committee report on Lynas Malaysia’s operations, audits on the company’s operations or any of the three prior independent expert scientific reviews of Lynas Malaysia’s operations.
There is still potential for a further boost of the Lynas share price if conditions improve further.
Ongoing legal challenge?
Lynas said that Malaysia offers legal avenues for the review of the licence conditions.
The rare earth miner said that it has made “significant investments” in its Malaysian facility and will seek a review. It wants to be treated fairly as a foreign direct investor and as a significant employer and contributor to the Malaysian economy.
Final thoughts on the Lynas share price
The Lynas share price is still down by around 25% since the 2023 peak, so investors are less optimistic. Obviously, some of its success is linked to the rare earth prices. So, if there’s a recovery of prices then that’d be good news for the business.
I like that the company is working on facilities in the US, because of how important rare earths are to high-tech US industries. This could be good news for the future.
It would have been better to consider the business last week, but the ASX mining share could have a good future from this largely beaten-up price.
