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Malay govt probe won't delay Lynas plant Wednesday, April 27, 2011 » 06:03pm Lynas Corporation Ltd says the Malaysian government's review of its rare earths processing plant under construction won't set back the targeted completion date. Shares in Lynas closed down 24 cents, or 9.8 per cent, at $2.21 after more than 47 million of the company's scrip had changed hands. Malaysia's Minister of International Trade and Industry last week appointed an independent panel of international experts to review the health, safety and environmental aspects of Lynas' advanced material plant in the state of Pahang. The minister, Y.B. Dato Sri Mustapa Mohamad, said there was public concern about the plant and he prohibited Lynas from importing raw materials from Australia into Malaysia until the review was completed. Lynas on Wednesday said it was confident the review would confirm the plant was safe to workers and the community. 'Lynas understands that the review will be completed within one month and as such believes the review will have no impact on the anticipated completion date of the project.' The company expects to feed first concentrate into the plant in September. The ore will come from Lynas' Mount Weld project in Western Australia. It will be concentrated at a nearby plant in WA before being shipped to Malaysia for further processing. Lynas said it postponed until June an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to consider the planned sale to explorer Forge Resources Ltd of non-core mining areas at Mt Weld containing niobium and phosphate. Lynas said it had received questions from shareholders about the proposed deal since it was announced last month. The two companies share a common chairman in Nicholas Curtis. Lynas said it had decided to issue an updated explanatory memorandum to address the queries, which would be made available in mid-May. Lynas also on Wednesday said it had converted a letter of intent signed in September 2008 with 'a major rare earths consumer', which it did not name, for product from Mount Weld into a long-term supply agreement. The company said it was a multi-year contract with an extension clause. The contract price would be referenced to market prices. Lynas said it continued to talk with potential customers in Europe, Japan and United States.