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- Lynas Rare Earths (LYC) achieves record sales receipts of $351 million during the June 2022 quarter
- The rare earths producer has also reported a quarter-on-quarter decrease in revenue to $294.5 million due to softer production at its Malaysia rare earths plant
- Lynas says it faced major water supply disruptions, which led to lower production volumes, but has since implemented strategies to reduce water supply issues moving forward
- Importantly, Lynas is on track to building two more rare earths facilities, including in Kalgoorlie to process material from the Mt Weld mine and a proposed separation plant in the US
- Company shares are trading 2.23 per cent lower at $7.88 as of 11:54 amAEST
Lynas Rare Earths (LYC) has reported a “very strong” final quarter for the 2022 financial year.
The rare earths producer achieved record sales receipts of $351 million during the June quarter, representing a significant increase on the $262 million in the March quarter.
The company also brought in $294.5 million in sales revenue, however this was a decrease on the $327.7 million in revenue in the March quarter which reflects softer production in Malaysia.
Lynas’ operations are based in Australia and Malaysia with its Mt Weld mine located in WA and what is considered the world’s largest single rare earths processing plant in Malaysia.
The Malaysian plant produces rare earth materials which are then exported to manufacturers in Asia, Europe and the US.
During the quarter, the Malaysian plant produced 3650 tonnes of rare earth oxides (REOs), which was less than the 4945 tonnes produced in the previous quarter due to water supply interruptions.
The company said despite having a mitigation strategy in place for water supply issues, the frequency and severity of the outages required production halts which resulted in lower production volumes.
Since then, Lynas has modified the process to decrease freshwater consumption by 40 per cent at the plant. This change will be implemented in the September quarter and is expected to reduce water supply issues moving forward.
Positively for the company, construction activities are progressing well in Kalgoorlie following approvals in February.
Lynas received ministerial approval to build a rare earths processing facility in Kalgoorlie which it describes as a “foundation project” for the Lynas 2025 growth vision.
Once up and running the Kalgoorlie plant will process the rare earth concentrate from the Mt Weld mine. The material will then be further processed at Lynas’ Malaysia plant or at its proposed rare earths separation facility in the US.
In regards to the proposed US facility, Lynas was awarded a US$120 million (A$176.5 million) contract by the US Department of Defence to build a commercial rare earths separation facility in Texas.
The site will house both the heavy rare earth separation facility and the planned light rare earth separation facility.
At the end of the June quarter, Lynas Rare Earths had a cash balance of $965.6 million.
Company shares were trading 2.23 per cent lower at $7.88 as of 11:54 am AEST.
