Rinehart-backed miner signs deal to make magnets for wind turbines and EVs

A rare-earths miner backed by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has again confounded her anti-renewable stance by signing a deal to make magnets for wind turbines and electric vehicles, as well as other industries.

Lynas Rare Earths has signed an agreement with South Korea-based JS Link to develop a rare earth permanent magnet factory in Kuantan, Malaysia. 

JS Link will build the factory, partly funded by a $50 million cash injection into the company from Lynas, which will supply rare earth materials to that plant, as well as to the existing JS Link magnet factory in South Korea.

The Kuantan magnet factory is expected to produce up to 3,000 tonnes a year of NdFeB permanent sintered magnets and create up to 400 new jobs in Malaysia.

“Magnets produced at the factory are intended to supply automotive, wind energy and electronics manufacturing supply chains in key markets including Korea, Malaysia and other key markets,” a joint statement said.

The magnets are crucial for wind turbines, electric and hybrid cars, and also also used in consumer electronics, and the defence and medical industries, including for drones and MRI machines.

Another company backed by Rinehart, Arafura Rare Earths, is spending $1.2 billion – mostly provided through government finance – to build a new mine in the Northern Territory, again with the majority of the production to be delivered to the wind and EV industries (Siemens and Hyundai).

See: Australia’s richest anti-renewables campaigner backs giant mine selling rare earths for wind turbines

Rinehart has been vocal about her opposition to renewable energy technologies and net zero policies, and has warned of the impacts of large scale wind and solar arrays.

Yet Lynas Rare Earths – like other off-grid miners such as Bellevue Gold – has achieved very high renewable energy penetration levels, slashing its dependence on fossil fuels such as diesel, and also sheltering it from rising costs.

Lynas’ Mt Weld mine in Western Australia has installed a new hybrid renewables facility, combining 7 megawatts (MW) of solar, 24 MW of wind, and a 12 MW/12 MWh battery, and expected around 70 per cent share of renewables from that set up.

But it has gone much better than that, achieving a remarkable 95.7 per cent renewables share in the first quarter of 2026.

Another Rinehart-backed miner, Liontown Resources, has also reached an average of 80 per cent renewables at its off-grid Kathleen Valley mining and processing operations in the first quarter, reducing diesel costs to a fraction of other miners.

The importance of that was underlined in the latest quarterly report from mining giant Rio Tinto on Wednesday, which said diesel prices had increased from around $US85 a barrel to around $US140/bbl during the first half of the year, resulting in a $US0.8/t increase in costs.

According to the AFR, this translates into an additional $180 million diesel fuel bill for its Pilbara iron ore mines for the half year.

Unlike rival miner Fortescue, which is aiming to eliminate fossil fuels from its Pilbara mines by the end of the decade, Rio has chosen to go slow on electrification, although it is trialling some electric haul trucks with BHP.

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