The Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) share price is up 3.95% in late morning trade.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) rare earths miner closed yesterday trading for $8.36 a share. Shares are currently changing hands for $8.69 apiece.
Here's what ASX 200 investors are mulling over.
What's happening with miner's license in Malaysia?
The Lynas share price is in the green after the miner reported its Malaysian operating licence has been renewed for a three-year period, commencing 3 March.
The renewal relates to the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Lynas Malaysia, and was granted by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board.
Investors are bidding up the Lynas share price despite the fact that under the renewed licence, the miner will no longer be able to import and process lanthanide concentrate after 1 July.
The prohibition, which relates to concerns over radioactive waste, was applied to the licence issued in March 2020, stipulating the 1 July 2023 cut-off.
Lynas had applied to the Malaysian regulator to remove the prohibition, but seemingly without success.
Commenting on the licence renewal and lanthanide concentrate issue, Lynas CEO Amanda Lacaze said:
After 10 years of safe operation in Malaysia we are disappointed that the conditions that were applied to our 2020 operating licence remain. This is our sixth operating licence and the four licences granted prior to 2020 did not include these conditions.
Lacaze said the prohibition is "inconsistent with the conditions upon which Lynas was invited to invest in Malaysia and the recommendations of four independent scientific reviews".
She said each of those reviews found Lynas Malaysia's operations to be "low risk and compliant with regulations".
Lynas' Malaysia plant is the world's largest single rare earths processing facility and the only scale producer of separated rare earths outside China.
The company noted that the Malaysian government provides administrative and legal avenues to review licence conditions. And it aims to make use of those.
"We will now proceed with administrative and legal appeals to ensure that Lynas is treated fairly and equitably as a Foreign Direct Investor and a significant employer and contributor to the Malaysian economy," Lacaze said.
If Lynas is cannot amend the condition, it will have to close the cracking and leaching component of its Lynas Malaysia plant.
Other processes at the plant can continue regardless, with new feedstock sourced from Lynas' Kalgoorlie Rare Processing Facility once that's up and running.
Lynas share price snapshot
As you can see in the chart below, the Lynas share price has been a strong performer so far in 2023, up 12% year to date.
