Lynas hits record quarter

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths miner Lynas has reported record production and sales during the three months to March, resulting in record cash flow.

Neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) production during the quarter increased by 3.2% from the previous quarter, to 1 373 t. It was also a 61.5% improvement on the previous corresponding period. Sales revenues were up 6.6% quarter-on-quarter to A$69.3-million, from the sale of 3 437 t of rare-earth oxides.

The first mining campaign since 2008 at the Mt Weld operation, in Western Australia, started in January this year, but was affected during February and March following heavy rainfalls in the area.

However, Lynas noted that the campaign was still running on schedule and would be completed by the middle of the June quarter.

Meanwhile, operations at the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant, in Malaysia, were running according to schedule, with site-wide improvement programmes continuing, focusing on debottlenecking and incremental increases in production rates, improving product quality, improving rare-earth recoveries and reducing chemical costs.

Lynas said on Wednesday that the company was the second largest NdPr producer in the world, and with no in-house downstream production, the company was also the largest supplier of NdPr to the free market.

The company pointed out that in another record for the quarter, cash flow from operations and investing activities reached A$11.6-million during the three months to March, which was more than double the result achieved in the December quarter.