West LHD Development Underway in Questa

As part of the normal course of operation, Molycorp began development last fall of the LHD West ore body. This development will provide the mine with ore into the foreseeable future.

Molycorp’s mining operation in Questa includes an underground, block cave mine. This mining technique uses a series of drifts/tunnels interconnected with several discrete mining levels to extract the ore and transport it to the surface for milling. As the ore is depleted in one area, the mine must be further developed to capture other areas of the ore body. This development includes the construction of new drifts/tunnels and mining levels. This development work will take approximately 18 months to complete with ore available for mining in late 2006.