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A Key Milestone in Molycorp's Heavy Rare Earth Strategy Posted on 12/21/2011 7:40:00 AM 
Exploratory drilling operations underway near Mountain Pass heavy rare earth occurrence.
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We received some great news last week. The Bureau of Land Management authorized us to begin test drilling at an occurrence of heavy rare earth elements (HREE) near Mountain Pass. This is an important milestone in our broader HREE strategy. Drilling operations are underway.
Our early testing at this site has been very promising. Preliminary exploration has indicated an ore grade of four percent or greater and a relatively high percentage of HREEs, such as terbium (1.6%), dysprosium (.5%), and europium (.8%). It also has high percentages of yttrium (2.0%), neodymium (21%), samarium (3.5%), and praseodymium (5%).
If our exploration proves that this occurrence is economically viable, we’ll be in a good position to move this material into production rapidly. The proximity of this occurrence to Mountain Pass means that we can easily transport the material to our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, minimizing the need for additional infrastructure and maximizing the speed to production. Ultimately, this project has the potential to significantly increase our heavies production beyond what we’ve already planned to produce from our existing mine at Mountain Pass.
Heavy rare earths, like dysprosium and terbium, and the magnetic rare earths, such as
neodymium and praseodymium, are essential to a wide range of technologies. Wind power, hybrid and electric vehicles, and consumer electronics markets are poised for substantial growth and will need these critical materials.
Sources: IMCOA and Roskill
New sources like the one we’ll be testing are part of our multi-pronged HREE strategy. Additionally, we are pursuing HREE production via rare earth recycling, particularly of fluorescent lighting and magnets in consumer electronics; minimization of rare earth usage through material science advances and technologies that use less HREEs; and processing technologies that we’ve developed that boost our HREE recoveries.
Finally, I want to acknowledge and compliment the Bureau of Land Management and the
Department of Interior for their thorough and efficient work on this drilling authorization. This deposit could prove very beneficial to the nation’s renewable energy supply chain as well as many other technologies.
We’ll know more when we complete our drilling and the subsequent analysis sometime in
the second quarter.
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Safe Harbor Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This article contains forward-looking statements that represent Molycorp’s beliefs, projections, and predictions about future events or 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, uncertainties associated with Molycorp’s reserve estimates and non-reserve deposit information, and uncertainties regarding the results of exploratory drilling programs. 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, 2010 and of the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2011. Any forward-looking statement contained in this article or the Annual Report on Form 10-K or the Quarterly Report 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.
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