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Molycorp -- >>> Molycorp Announces Start-Up of Heavy Rare Earth Concentrate Operations at Mountain Pass, Calif.


Company Also Announces That Its High-Efficiency Combined Heat & Power Plant Will Begin Feeding Electrical Power and Steam to Its New Project Phoenix Facility This Week


8-27-12


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/molycorp-announces-start-heavy-rare-200100985.html




GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) today announced the start-up of its new Project Phoenix heavy rare earth concentrate facilities at Mountain Pass, California, which will produce heavy rare earth concentrate from freshly mined Mountain Pass ore that will then be processed into high-purity, custom-engineered heavy rare earth products in Molycorp’s globally integrated production facilities.

Molycorp also announced that its on-site Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant will begin feeding low-cost, high efficiency electrical power and steam this week to its Mountain Pass facilities. Molycorp's CHP plant is fueled by clean-burning natural gas fed to the facility by a recently completed natural gas lateral supply line that connects the facility to a nearby interstate natural gas pipeline operated by Kern River Gas Transmission Company.

“We have launched operations of Project Phoenix’s heavy rare earth concentrate facilities on schedule, our combined heat and power plant is set to begin powering our new facilities this week, and we remain on track to achieve full Phase 1 production rates at Mountain Pass in the fourth quarter of this year,” said Mark A. Smith, Molycorp’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "The heavy rare earth concentrate we will produce at Mountain Pass will support our production of a full range of high-purity, custom-engineered materials from light, medium, and heavy rare earths. Such vertical integration strongly positions Molycorp to compete successfully across multiple markets.”

Molycorp's heavy rare earth concentrate contains dysprosium, terbium, europium, and other elements that will be further processed by the Company into rare earth oxides, metals, alloys, and magnetic materials used in such technologies as hybrid electric vehicles, wind turbines, high efficiency appliances and motors, consumer electronics, and many other important applications.

Molycorp currently produces high-purity products from the following rare earths: Cerium, Lanthanum, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Lutetium, and Ytterbium (with purity levels as high as 99.999% for some rare earth products). It also produces high-purity products from the following rare metals and transition metals: Gallium, Rhenium, Indium, Tantalum, Niobium, Zirconium, and Yttrium (with purities as high as 99.999999% for some of these products).

About Molycorp, Inc.

Molycorp is a leading rare earths and rare metals company, and combines a world-class rare earth resource at Mountain Pass, California, with advanced, high-purity rare earth and rare metal materials processing capabilities. With 26 locations across 11 countries, Molycorp is vertically integrated across the global rare earth mine-to-magnetics supply chain. It produces rare earth magnetic materials as well as a variety of high-purity, custom engineered products from 13 different rare earths (lights and heavies) as well as five rare metals (gallium, indium, rhenium, tantalum and niobium), and the transition metals yttrium and zirconium. Through its Molycorp Magnequench subsidiary, the Company is a leading global producer of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet powders, used to manufacture bonded NdFeB permanent rare earth magnets. Through its joint venture with Daido Steel and Mitsubishi Corporation, Molycorp expects to begin manufacturing next-generation, sintered NdFeB permanent rare earth magnets in early 2013. The rare earths and rare metals materials that Molycorp produces are critical inputs in wide variety of existing and emerging applications, including the following: advanced transportation technologies, such as hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and all-electric vehicles; clean energy technologies, such as solar and wind power systems; energy efficiency technologies, such as high efficiency motors and appliances, compact fluorescent lights, and color displays; computing and communications applications, including fiber optics, lasers, and hard disk drives; defense and aerospace applications, such as satellites, guidance and control systems, and global positioning systems; and advanced water treatment technologies for use in municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, pool & spa, and outdoor recreation applications. For more information please visit www.molycorp.com.

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