Lynas : Malaysia gives Lynas until February 15 to store rare earths residue

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia will allow Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp to store residue at its ore processing plant until Feb. 15, the environment ministry said on Tuesday.

Lynas announced that it was granted an extension for a temporary permit to store residue from the processing plant on Monday without giving a date for its expiration.

The ministry said in its statement that the extension was only temporary.

The ministry said the extension was granted to facilitate a review of operations at the processing located in Kuantan, on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, by an executive committee formed by the government.

The committee will hold public hearings in Kuantan on Nov. 11 to gather feedback from interested parties, the ministry said.

(This story corrects to remove comment on time limit for Lynas in paragraph 3 after ministry corrects statement).

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)