KUALA LUMPUR: Lynas (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd’s investment in research and development (R&D) has succeeded in finding commercial applications for its residue with the discovery of “Condisoil”, a flexible and multi-purpose fertiliser.
Condisoil is produced via a combination of water leach purification (WLP, a waste product from rare earth processing) and magnesium rich synthetic gypsum (MRSG).
With the help of experts from universities, ministries and agencies, including the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) and Sirim, Condisoil has been tested and found to be safe to use in the soil, water, plant tissue and rice grain.
The New Straits Times sighted documents from tests, where Condisoil was used to grow kenaf and corn in “BRIS” areas, short for “beach ridges interspersed with swales”.
Condisoil’s success would have a significant impact on Lynas’s licensing conditions, because if the WLP residue has commercial use, there is no longer reason to export the waste out of the country, observers said.
Under Lynas’s licensing agreement, the company must find a commercial use for the waste, which must be stored in a permanent disposal facility.
If it fails to execute these two conditions, the low-level radioactive WLP residue must be taken out of the country.
On Saturday, Kuantan member of parliament Fuziah Salleh said Lynas should suspend the production of WLP residue at its rare earth refinery if it failed to dispose the stockpile by Sept 2.
According to a Bernama report, she said new waste would complicate the efforts to remove existing WLP waste from the plant in Gebeng.
“I think that they cannot continue to produce waste.
“They don’t have to close down. Just don’t produce new residue until the existing one is removed,” she said after launching the “My Best Buy” programme at Serambi Teruntum in Kuantan.