A pro-China propaganda campaign used fake social media accounts to try to stir up opposition, including protests, against mining firms that challenge China's business interests, U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant said on Tuesday. While politically motivated disinformation campaigns on social media have grown increasingly common, researchers say, such an operation targeting a specific industry of strategic importance to China is rare. The digital campaign, known to researchers as Dragonbridge, flooded Twitter and Facebook in recent months with posts raising environmental and health concerns over the operations of three major mining firms: Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths Ltd, Canada’s Appia Rare Earths and Uranium Corp, and USA Rare Earth.
Australia's Lynas Rare Earths has signed a $120 million follow-on contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to build a commercial heavy rare earths separation facility in Texas, the firm said on Tuesday. Lynas is the world's largest processor of rare earths outside China, and the contract with its U.S. subsidiary builds on 'Phase 1' funding for a facility announced in July 2020. Lynas intends to combine the heavy rare earth separation plant with a light rare earth separation facility, which is half-funded by the Defense Production Act office of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Lynas Rare Earths Limited ( ASX:LYC ) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 16% in the last...