Disruption in Lynas supply will hurt Japanese, Western industries

SOME 50 per cent of electricity generated is used for power rotary and traction electric motors. Rare earth magnets made of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) provide the lightest weight, lowest volume and overall most energy-efficient electric motors for almost all applications.

China controls 85 per cent of NdFeB production via its nearmonopoly control of 80 per cent neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) rare earth mining, and the supply chain it has built to process rare earth oxides into products.

The only international competitor is the Japanese NdFeB industry that is dominated by a handful of players, but they provide 45 per cent of the world supply.

The Japanese NdFeB industry is around 80 per cent dependent on production from the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Kuantan for NdPr oxide and Nd oxide supplies.

Any disruption to that supply would damage the Japanese and Western NdFeB supplies, perhaps fatally.

This production chemical processing plant, which produces around 25,000 tonnes of rare earth event oxides annually, is one of the most complex chemical plants in the world.

LAMP holds ISO certification for the safety and quality of its operations.

From its outset a decade ago, the Japanese government and its rare earth agency has provided funding for Lynas LAMP.

NdFeB production has been recognised as a key enabler for many of the 10 high-technology industry segments which China seeks to dominate internationally by 2025, especially energysaving and new energy vehicles, power equipment, advanced railway equipment, and numerical control tools and robotics.

The Lynas LAMP NdPr supply to the Japanese NdFeB magnet industry is the only alternate supply chain of any consequence currently in operation. Its technological complexity and proprietary intellectual property will take a minimum of five years to replicate. ROBERT V. RICHARDSON Bowning, Australia