Molycorp Announces that its Expanded Leach System Has Now Been Placed Into Service at its Mountain Pass, California Facility ...
September 30 2014 - 7:00AM
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (September 30,
2014) -- Molycorp, Inc. (NYSE: MCP) ("Molycorp" or the "Company")
today announced that the expanded Leach system at its Mountain
Pass, California Facility has been placed into service and is
expected to mitigate a major production bottleneck at the facility
and facilitate greater rare earth production once it is fully
operational.
Company officials said that improvements made to the Leach system
include the installation of additional leach tanks, a proven
technology to increase the system's retention capacity. While
operations of the new Leach system are expected to be limited in
the near term due to constraints in onsite production and market
availability of hydrochloric acid (HCl), Company officials said
that the system expansion addresses one of the major production
bottlenecks at Mountain Pass and is expected to boost rare earth
production and lower operating costs once it is fully operational
and sufficient supplies of HCl are available.
While onsite production and market availability of HCl are expected
to improve in the fourth quarter of 2014 and beyond, Company
officials said that third quarter rare earth production at Mountain
Pass is not expected to exceed first quarter 2014 levels.
Company officials also announced that the onsite Chlor-Alkali
facility at Mountain Pass, which uses process waste water to
produce HCl and other chemical reagents used in rare earth
production, is operational and that its output is expected to
increase as facility engineers continue to make equipment repairs
and address quality issues related to the brine feedstock that have
been impacting the plant's operations.
"Expanding our Leach system is a significant step in our efforts to
increase rare earth production over the coming months at Mountain
Pass and to continue to reduce our operating costs," said Geoff
Bedford, Molycorp President and Chief Executive Officer. "We
remain committed to meeting our customers' needs by building a
global, vertically integrated company that produces rare earth
materials in an environmentally superior way and at a cost that is
competitive with any other producer in the world."
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Source: Molycorp, Inc. ($MCP)
For more information:
Jim Sims, +1 (303) 843-8062
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Jim.Sims@Molycorp.com
Brian Blackman, +1 (303) 843-8067
Vice President, Investor Relations
Brian.Blackman@Molycorp.com
About Molycorp, Inc.
Molycorp is the only advanced material manufacturer in the world
that both controls a world-class rare earth resource and can
produce high-purity, custom engineered rare earth products to meet
increasingly demanding customer specifications. With 25 locations
across 10 countries, the Company produces a wide variety of
specialized products from 13 different rare earths (lights and
heavies), the transition metal yttrium, and five rare metals
(gallium, indium, rhenium, tantalum, and niobium). The
Company produces rare earth magnetic materials through its Molycorp
Magnequench subsidiary, including neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB)
magnet powders, used to manufacture bonded NdFeB permanent rare
earth magnets. Through its joint venture with Daido Steel and the
Mitsubishi Corporation, Molycorp manufactures next-generation,
sintered NdFeB permanent rare earth magnets. The Company also
markets and sells a line of rare earth-based water treatment
products. For more information please visit
www.molycorp.com.
Safe Harbor Statement Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that represent
Molycorp's beliefs, projections and predictions about future events
or Molycorp's future performance. Forward-looking statements can be
identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "would," "could,"
"should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue" or the negative of
these terms or other similar expressions or phrases. These
forward-looking statements are necessarily subjective and involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors
that could cause Molycorp's actual results, performance or
achievements or industry results to differ materially from any
future results, performance or achievement described in or implied
by such statements.
Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from
expected results described in forward-looking statements include,
but are not limited to: the need to secure additional capital
to implement Molycorp's business plans, and Molycorp's ability to
successfully secure any such capital, including the ability to
successfully access the remaining commitment under the Company's
$400 million financing completed in September 2014; Molycorp's
ability to optimize production at its Mountain Pass rare earth mine
and processing facility, which we refer to as the Molycorp Mountain
Pass facility, and the ability to develop internal and external
demand for REO and other downstream products, including the ability
to operate at commercial production rates and competitive cash
production costs, in each case within the projected time frame;
Molycorp's ability to economically produce chemical reagents from
waste water at the Molycorp Mountain Pass facility on a consistent
basis; the success of Molycorp's cost mitigation efforts in
connection with the optimization of the Molycorp Mountain Pass
facility, which, if unsuccessful, might cause its costs to exceed
budget; the final costs of Molycorp's planned capital projects,
which may differ from estimated costs; Molycorp's ability to
achieve fully the strategic and financial objectives related to the
acquisition of Molycorp Canada, including the acquisition's impact
on Molycorp's financial condition and results of operations;
unexpected costs or liabilities that may arise from the
acquisition, ownership or operation of Molycorp Canada; risks and
uncertainties associated with intangible assets, including any
future goodwill impairment charges; risks associated with
Molycorp's ability to protect its intellectual property, including
the infringement of intellectual property of third parties; market
conditions, including prices and demand for Molycorp's products;
Molycorp's ability to control its working capital needs; foreign
exchange rate fluctuations; the development and commercialization
of new products; unexpected actions of domestic and foreign
governments; various events which could disrupt operations,
including natural events and other risks; uncertainties associated
with Molycorp's reserve estimates and non-reserve deposit
information, including estimated mine life and annual production;
uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates
of expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic
returns, REO prices, production costs and other expenses for
operations, which are subject to fluctuation; uncertainties
regarding global supply and demand for rare earths materials;
uncertainties regarding the results of Molycorp's exploratory
drilling programs; Molycorp's ability to enter into additional
definitive agreements with its customers and its ability to
maintain customer relationships; Molycorp's sintered
neodymium-iron-boron rare earth magnet joint venture's ability to
successfully manufacture magnets within its expected timeframe;
Molycorp's ability to successfully integrate other acquired
businesses; Molycorp's ability to maintain appropriate relations
with unions and employees; Molycorp's ability to successfully
implement its vertical integration strategy; environmental laws,
regulations and permits affecting Molycorp's business, directly and
indirectly, including, among others, those relating to mine
reclamation and restoration, climate change, emissions to the air
and water and human exposure to hazardous substances used, released
or disposed of by Molycorp; and uncertainties associated with
unanticipated geological conditions related to mining; and the
outcome of the current stockholder class action litigation and
derivative litigation, including any actions taken by government
agencies in connection therewith.
For more information regarding these and other risks and
uncertainties that Molycorp may face, see the section entitled
"Risk Factors" of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2013 and of the Company's Quarterly Reports
on Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statement contained in this
release or the Annual Report on Form 10-K or the Quarterly Reports
on Form 10-Q reflects Molycorp's current views with respect to
future events and is subject to these and other risks,
uncertainties and assumptions relating to Molycorp's operations,
operating results, growth strategy and liquidity. You should not
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because
such statements speak only as to the date when made. Molycorp
assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these
forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons
actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in
these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes
available in the future, except as otherwise required by applicable
law
This
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The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the
information contained therein.
Source: Molycorp, Inc. via Globenewswire
HUG#1859522