Profits have plunged for miner Lynas Rare Earths amid "stubbornly low" prices for the elements needed for mobile phones, batteries and high-tech defence equipment.
Lynas, the biggest producer of rare earths outside China, on Wednesday reported a net profit of $84 million for the 12 months to June 30, down almost three-quarters from $310.7m the previous year.
"Despite the short-term effects of low market prices, we continue to see investment and policy initiatives that will support a growing global rare earths supply chain," chief executive Amanda Lacaze said.
"Our average selling price improved towards the end of FY24 as we proactively managed the timing of sales, especially for heavy rare earths where pricing was particularly volatile."
But she has slammed power outages as "unacceptable" and recently warned that Australia's critical minerals sector needs government-subsidised shared infrastructure to compete with China, which continues to have a near monopoly on factory-ready supplies.
Sales revenue fell to $463.3 million from $739.3m, and the cash balance almost halved to $523.8m.
Some $579.3m was spent during the year on development projects, including the new Kalgoorlie processing facility, to expand production at Mt Weld and for greater capacity and efficiency at the Malaysia operations.
Ms Lacaze said the ramp-up of the Kalgoorlie facility continued as planned, and was being managed to align with increased production capacity at Mt Weld and Lynas Malaysia - and with market demand.
"Lynas continues to invest to ensure we are able to grow with the market," she said.
Detailed engineering, procurement and approvals activities continued for a United States processing facility but earthworks, which were previously planned to commence in 2024, will be delayed by issues about wastewater.
