KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — After failing to boot rare earth miner Lynas Corporation from Pahang, local environmental activists have resorted to taking their battle abroad, and have parked themselves in a protest camp-out at the doorsteps of the firm’s headquarters in Australia.
The activist group, Himpunan Hijau, plans to stay put until the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled for tomorrow, hoping their presence would turn the heat up a notch in their campaign to shut down the allegedly hazardous mining plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.
“We will stay here until the Lynas Annual General meeting of shareholders this coming Friday the 29th November,” Himpunan Hijau’s chairman Wong Tack said in a press statement here, adding that more protesters are expected to fly in from Malaysia to Sydney today.
“Our purpose here is to send the strongest message to Lynas’ management and investors that we will never let go of our struggle until the Lynas plant in Gebeng is SHUT DOWN!” he added, with the group entering its third day of occupation outside the firm.
Himpunan Hijau appeared to be ramping up its protest after its signature drive launched in August where they were said to have met their target of 1 million signatures in 36 days.
The group said that 1.2 million Malaysians have to date signed its petition of protest in their bid to get the Lynas plant to closed down its operations here.
On November 20 last year, activists from the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) group had similarly protested outside Lynas Corporation’s headquarters during the company’s AGM.
Environmental activists have raised health and safety concerns over the RM2.5 billion Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.
On September 3 last year, the Malaysian regulator Atomic Energy Licensing Board granted Lynas (Malaysian) Sdn Bhd a temporary operating licence (TOL) that came with several conditions.
AELB director-general Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan had then said the TOL will be for a two-year period that will end on Sept 2, 2014.
