KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- Lynas Corporation Ltd, which has made a direct capital investment of RM1.318 billion in its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) as of Sept 31, expects an incremental investment of approximately RM200 million.
In a statement today, the company said the incremental investment would be from two material suppliers.
"Upstream to the rare earth processing at the LAMP in Gebeng, Pahang, the plant already has two material suppliers already investing in building and expanding their operations to supply to LAMP," Lynas said.
Of the RM1.318 billion capital investment, Lynas had invested RM618 million in Malaysia under Phase One, of which RM235 million was awarded to Kuantan-based contractors.
The current investment enables an initial production capacity of 11,000T Rare Earth Oxide (REO) per annum of separated Rare Earth products.
Under Phase Two, an additional RM700 million has been allocated for expansion now underway. "Near to 50 per cent of this investment is spent in Malaysia for subcontracting requirements and materials purchase while approximately 40 per cent is for the purchase of equipment and technical expertise offshore.
"Undertaken by lead contractor Toyo-Thai Corporation Public Limited, these investments will gear up to an increased production capacity of 22,000T REO per annum," it said.
On human capital investments, the company said Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd's current payroll already stood at RM26 million per annum.
It said Lynas Malaysia is fully manned and managed by Malaysians except for the four Rare Earth operations experts from China, and the LAMP creates over 350 skilled permanent jobs.
Apart from Lynas' direct investment, the LAMP would create up to an additional 500 indirect jobs for service providers and contractors, the company said.
It added that as the first new rare earth supplier outside China, the LAMP could position Malaysia as the destination of choice for associated manufacturers of high technology products looking for a base for their manufacturing operations.
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