KUALA LUMPUR: Australian rare-earths miner Lynas has begun production at its Malaysian processing plant following a recent court victory, the company said. The company said the first rare-earth concentrate had been fed into the kiln at the Lynas Advance Material Plant in Kuantan, Malaysia. “This is a significant milestone,” executive chairman Nicholas Curtis said. “The operation of the LAMP is now a reality, and the LAMP will provide real data that will assure people that the LAMP is entirely safe for our local communities and the environment.” The event follows controversy and delays caused by strong opposition about possible health threats from pollution. The move has left many activists angered that the government is doing too little to ensure the environmental and health safety of the country. Australia's Lynas, which received a temporary operating license for the $800 million plant in early September, had aimed to start production in October, but a court injunction has left the deal in limbo. Activists said last month that the Malaysia High Court has put a temporary operating license granted to Lynas Corporation concerning the controversial rare earths plant near the coastal city of Kuantan on hold. Now, it appears it is moving forward. Activist group Himpunan Hijau said it would blockade the port near the town of Kuantan in an effort to force the company to back down from their plans to establish the refinery in the country. It is said that if they attempt to import raw earths from Australia for refinement in Malaysia, they would stand tall. The company completed building the first phase of the plant in three months to June 30 and is continuing work on the expansion of the project, which is scheduled for completion early next year. It said its “operational preparedness" program was 97 percent complete at the end of the quarter. Ongoing protests and attacks against the establishing of the rare earths facility have seen the Australian company go to court to force critics and villagers to be silenced, but the court in late July ruled that it would not end the debate over the safety of the plant. The High Court rejected Lynas' push to block a coalition of villagers from publishing statements about the project that Lynas insists are defamatory. Earlier, Lynas had won the apology of local newspapers over its coverage of the rare earths facility, a plan designed to mine minerals vital to hi-tech manufacturing. Coalition representative Tan Bun Teet said July's verdict was a “small victory" for activists to maintain their opposition. Independent Malaysia outlet Free Malaysia Today, issued an apology for articles it had written concerning the debate over the Australian plant. In those articles, the publication argued that the Lynas plant would be unsafe. “We apologize for these publications as such claims do not have a scientific basis. The regulatory review of the Lynas plant has been thorough and diligent," the media outlet said. The apology is an attempt to head off any defamation charges against them after Lynas went after the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas activist group and a number of local media as they pushed forward on establishing the rare-earths plant in the country. Local reports did not say what exactly the court ruling was, or if there would be any forced compensation in the cases. Lynas's plans to process ore from its West Australian mine at the $200 million advanced materials plant in Malaysia are strongly opposed by community groups over fears of a repeat of the health problems associated with a Mitsubishi refinery at Bukit Merah that was closed in 1992. On June 24, over 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets with funeral banners and signs demanding the government revoke a decision earlier in July to allow Australia's Lynas' rare-earths mine to go forward. The Occupy Balok-Gebeng event started with the group's chairman Wong Tack delivering a fiery speech before a crowd of hundreds. “Today is the beginning. Today, we galvanize our forces from all across the nation. We occupy Balok and then the whole nation," he said at the launch of the protest in late July in Kuantan. Activists from the Ban Cyanide-Gold Mining in Bukit Koman movement and the Perak Anti-Radioactive Action Committee had joined the 24-hour rally. The crowd placed hundreds of wreaths, funeral banners and dozens of mock coffins in front of a giant banner depicting the Lynas rare earth refinery. Wong challenged the authorities to issue the full operating license immediately if it was so sure the project was safe. This was the fourth anti-Lynas rally organized by Himpunan Hijau in less than a year. The rally culminated with the group gathering in front of the Lynas plant in Gebeng.