A prominent rare earths miner backed by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, says it has achieved a renewable share of 90 per cent over the last quarter, and is considering taking its processing plant off grid too because of reliability issues with the main grid.
Rinehart, one of the country’s loudest opponents of Net Zero and renewables, and a supporter of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation which is echoing those views, has a significant share in Lynas Rare Earths, the world’s only significant producer of separated rare earth materials outside of China.
The company, with a market value of around $15 billion, recently signed a major deal to supply a Malaysia magnet factory that is supplying the wind turbine and EV industries.
Its major mine, the Mt Weld facility in Western Australia, boasts one of the highest share of renewables from its off-grid hybrid power plant that was completed last year.
It combines 24 megawatts (MW) of wind, 7 MW of solar, and a 12 MW/12 MWh battery. It expected to achieve around 70 per cent share renewables but has done much better than that – achieving a remarkable 95.7 per cent renewables share in the first quarter of 2026 and 90 per cent in the less renewables-favourable June quarter.
