GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., Sept. 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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."
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.