Molycorp lifts Mountain Pass reserves 27%

Rare earth producer Molycorp on Monday said it boosted reserves at its Californian Mountain Pass mine by 27% to 1.3-million tons of the metals in their oxide form. CEO Mark Smith said exploration drilling at the project could continue to grow...

Molycorp to buy Neo Materials for $1.3bn

Much has been said about potential consolidation in the rare earths sector, and Molycorp on Thursday made the first big one, agreeing to buy Canada’s Neo Material Technologies in a $1.3-billion cash and shares friendly deal. The purchase gives...

Frontier unveils impressive PEA at SA rare earths project

Toronto-quoted Frontier Rare Earths on Tuesday announced the positive results of a scoping study at its Zandkopsdrift project in South Africa’s Northern Cape, which gave the asset a $3.65-billion after-tax net present value at an 11% discount...

Molycorp to start Mountain Pass plant this week

Rare earths miner Molycorp will embark on the staged start-up of the new plant at its Mountain Pass mine this week, well ahead of schedule, the company said on Tuesday. “When this new manufacturing facility is complete and running at full...

Rare earths demand to surge 33% by 2016, says Kingsnorth

Demand for rare-earth elements, used in a wide range of technologies from precision missiles to iPhones, will grow by about 33% from 2012 to 160 000 t in 2016, Industrial Minerals Company of Australia director Dudley Kingsnorth said on Thursday....

Molycorp says Chile's Molymet buys 13% of company for $390m

Rare earths producer Molycorp said on Wednesday Chile’s Molibdenos y Metales (Molymet) would buy 12.5-million shares of the Greenwood Village, Colorado-based company for $390-million – a 10% premium to the volume weighted average trading price...

Molycorp ties more product into purchase agreements

Rare earths miner Molycorp said on Tuesday it has signed offtake agreements for 58% of its phase-one production at the Mountain Pass mine. The company has also allocated one-fifth of the 19 050 first-phase output to produce its trademark Xsorbx...

Rare-earth demand will return with lower prices, Molycorp says

Molycorp, the biggest non-Chinese rare earths producer, said on Thursday it would bring production forward by three months at the Mountain Pass mine its refurbishing in California, hiking the capital cost by $114-million. In a presentation...

Molycorp unveils heavy rare earths find

NYSE-quoted Molycorp has discovered a heavy rare earth deposit near its Mountain Pass mine in California, it said on Tuesday. Heavy rare earths are scarcer than their light counterparts, and seen to be more critical, which is reflected in their...

US finds 1Mt rare earths deposit in Afghanistan

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said on Wednesday it estimated there were at least one-million tons of rare earth elements contained in resources in Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province. According to the USGS, the carbonatite deposit host...

Ucore gets US govt support for rare earths project

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted rare earths explorer Ucore Rare Metals priority permitting for its Bokan project in Alaska, which the company said on Wednesday would cut at least a year off its development schedule. “This...

Molycorp climbs on higher contract pricing agreement

Shares in Molycorp muscled higher on a Thursday announcement that the company had agreed with an unnamed customer to raise prices for its rare earths supplies by an undisclosed amount. The stock climbed 6.5% to close at $64.32 apiece, after it...