Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth

The close down of the Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth (ARE) in 1994 was due to public pressure both nationally and internationally despite efforts by the Government to help ARE to continue with its operation

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28th June 1984
The Minister of Science, Technology and Environment states that the Papan Dump is safe because it is being built according to stringent standards. ......

19th September 1984
A three-man team from the United Nation IAEA visited the Papan Site and declared the trenches there as unsafe.

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28th October 1986
Professor Sadao Ichikawa on his second trip to Bukit Merah reveals that radiation around the Asian Rare Earth is still above the acceptable level. .......

8th December 1986
Minister Kasitah Gadam of the Prime Minister's Department said that radiation levels at two illegal dumps in Bukit Merah checked by AELB are safe. .........

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6th february 1987
Disregarding the High Court injunction to Asian Rare Earth (ARE) to stop operations, AELB granted a licence to ARE to resume operation.

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13th June 2010, Dr. Mahathir said," ....... we had to bury the amang (tin tailings) in Perak, deep in the ground ......"

Following his remarks, The Star has discovered that 80,000 (numbers of ) 200-litre drums containing radioactive waste are currently being kept at a dump behind Papan town. And the waste is thorium hydroxide and not amang.

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Click Chronology of Events in the Bukit Merah Rare Earth Development for more.

Will Lynas plant end the same way ?

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Don't wait until the day when we can't sell our palm oil

That is the size of Peninsular Malaysia
compared to Australia

The size of Australia is that big, but it does not allow a rare earth plant on its land, why?

Because the plant produces enormous quantity of
solid, liquid and gaseous radioactive waste everyday

What will be the cost to Australia if it can't sell its agricultural products covering vegetables, fruits & nuts, livestock, wine, dairy products, sugar cane, wool, etc. etc. due to radioactive contamination ?

Found this video on youtube.

What will happen to our economy when the whole world stopped buying palm oil and other products from Malaysia ?



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Gold - Part 2

GOLD

In my 23rd September, 2011 post, 'Gold - Part 1', I presented the following projection for gold price.


I expected a 1-year wave 4 consolidation after its August 2011 wave 3 high of $1,909.00/oz. I have also projected a $3,000.00/oz for its wave 5's high by 2015.



Since its August, 2011's high, so far it has formed a a-b-c wave pattern.



The wave count as shown below, wave a has 3 waves, wave b has another 3 waves and wave c has 5 waves, a typical 3-3-5, a-b-c formation. Is the 29th December's low of $1,526.00/oz the end of wave 4 ?

Possible, but the duration of four months for wave 4 is rather short compared to the twelve months duration for wave 2. There is a possibility that wave 4 may go for a complex a-b-c-X-a-b-c formation instead of a simple a-b-c formation.




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Dow crossed 13,000 level

Dow managed to stay above the 13,000 level at the close of Tuesday trading session.


My wave count remains the same, it is either 'Option 1', 3-wave B as shown above or 'Option 2', 7-wave B as shown below. Hopefully the magnitude of the next pullback can rule out one of them.


The stock markets were being supported by excess liquidity in the banking system, thanks to the Quantitative Easing programs. The European Central bank is doing what the US has done by pumping 489 billion euros into the banking system last December. The spare cash in the banking system was 511 billion euros last Friday.

Click 'The Most Profitable bank in the World' to read, an interesting article from Seeking Alpha.

In 2011, Federal Reserve made $79 billion from interest payment to the Government and Agency bonds that it bought using money that it has created (by printing) out of nothing. The more it prints to buy over the bonds from the banks, the more money it is going to make and at the same times it provides excess liquidity to the banking system. Is this a big bubble in the making ??? What is the catch ???


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Penang Anti-Lynas Turned Ugly

With a white cap and a 1-Malaysia T-shirt,
one can do what many cannot do.

The Chief Minister of Penang, Lim Guan Eng has lodged a police report. Click 'Lim Guan Eng' for the full report.



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Liverpool - 2012 Carling Cup Winner

After 6 long years

Since they last won the FA Cup in 2006, Liverpool managed to end its trophy drought by beating Cardiff 3-2 in a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw in extra-time.

Six long miserable years for all the Liverpool supportes, including poor me.

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Stop Lynas

The crowd at MPK4 Field today, a really big crowd. Some said 3,000 but some claimed that there were 15,000 supporters of Himpunan Hijau 2.0 to protest against the setting up of a Lynas Rare Earth Processing Plant near Kuantan.



A nuclear scientist, Dr. Che Rosli Che Mat said, "The plant is safe. The project should proceed as long as the company adhered to strict safety standards and regulations to ensure that the health and safety of the residents were protected."



Click "Lynas plant is safe" for Dr. Rosli's comments.

I fully agreed with Dr. Che Rosli. The factory can be very safe with today's technology but on paper is one thing, actual implementation and operation is another thing. I think that is why Lynas is prepared to transport the material 4,000km to Malaysia for treatment instead of treating it next to its Mount Weld mine in Australia.

For a small plant at Mount Weld, Australian Government has imposed a 30km buffer zone but the Lynas Plant at Gebeng has two big towns and many fishing villages located within the 30km radius.



By nature, I never trust businessman when money is concerned and I always have doubt on the Malaysian authority's professionalism in monitoring and enforcement especially when it involved the rich and powerful.

Even at this construction stage, there were 'damped floor and cracked concrete wall' and 'withdrawal of AkzoNobel (international contractor) from the project' being reported by New York Times. On this issue AELB considers the plant is safe as long as there is Engineer's certification. If anything goes wrong, AELB will hold the Engineer responsible. Just wonder who is that 'Engineer'.



Safety comes with high cost if all the solid, liquid and gaseous waste from the plant were to be fully treated in accordance with international safety and health standard. If full compliance were to run into hundreds of million $ ultimately. I don't trust the businessman and honestly, I have no confidence in the Government's enforcement units in whatever they are doing.

And remember Murphy's Law - 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong'. The price to pay is 'what is the worst that can happen? worth it or not?

At today's rally, some has called for

Trying to force the Australian Government to give a helping hand?

What does the Chart tell?

From the Lynas stock chart, the stock price moved in 5 waves from around A$0.50 in January 2010 to April 2011's peak of A$2.60. From April 2011 to October 2011 it moved down in 5 waves. As 5 down-waves can not be the end of a corrective wave, it has to be wave A of a corrective wave. The subsequent 3-waves rebound with a climax surge on 2nd February, when a Temporary Operating Licence (TOL) was approved, marked the end of wave B. The current down trend can be the starting of wave C. It appeared to me that the stock price is heading for A$0.50 for a 100% retracement. Does it means the Malaysian Government is going to cancel the TOL for certain reasons???


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