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| Corporate Profile: Molycorp Inc Publisher: Kaiser Research Online Author: Copyright 2010 John A Kaiser
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Molycorp Inc (MCP-N)
Molycorp Inc owns 100% of the Mountain Pass rare earth deposit in southeastern California which operated from 1952 until 2002 when a waste water spill and low rare earth prices prompted Unocal to stop mining. In 2004 Unocal was bought by Chevron, which in October 2008 sold the Molycorp subsidiary to a private equity group headed by Resource Capital Funds, Pegasus Capital, and Traxys. They invested $132 million before listing on the NYSE on July 29, 2010 with an IPO that netted $368 million at $14/share. The proceeds will go toward the $550 million capital cost of putting Mountain Pass back into production at an average 1,300 tons per day. The refurbishment plan includes an on site separation facility and refining at an undisclosed off-site location. The Mountain Pass deposit is a light rare earth dominated carbonatite with proven and probable reserves of 13,588,000 tons at 8.24% TREO. At the projected recovery of 58-60% Mountain Pass will produce 19,050 tonnes of rare earth oxides annually from an open pit mine for 30 years, and 40,000 tonnes when the approved state II expansion is complete in 2014. Molycorp is pursuing a "mine to market" strategy which will see it develop downstream businesses such as magnet production and the sale of its patented XSORBX water filter which is expected to use up the cerium production from Mountain Pass. Molycorp hopes to have the remaining permits secured in early 2011 and restart production in late 2012. In April 2011 the company announced the acquisition of a 90% interest in AS Silmet, an Estonian rare earth processor with a 3,000 tonne annual production capacity as well as the ability to produce rare earth metals, and later in April announced the acquisition of Santoku America, an Arizona-based rare earth metal and alloy manafacturer, further strengthening Molycorp's processing capabilities |
Key to Understanding IPV Charts and Spec Value Hunter Tables
An IPV Chart is a graphical presentation of a Spec Value Hunter table that has been constructed according to the Rational Speculation Model developed by John Kaiser. The IPV Chart allows speculators to identify which projects offer poor, fair or good speculative value in both absolute and relative terms. The speculative value depends on the project stage, the project's implied value as calculated by the company's fully diluted capitalization, stock price and net project interest, and the dream target deemed appropriate for the project. A dream target is what a project would be worth in discounted cash flow terms once in production. |
Green background indicates the dream target judged appropriate for this play by John Kaiser - otherwise unranked. |
Poor Speculative Value - |
Fair Speculative Value - |
Good Speculative Value - |
Note: narrow arrows indicate IPV is outside the fair value channel but within 25% of the fair value limits |
Click on the company name to view the company profile, the project name to view project details. |
Click on the project icon if its background is shaded to get the IPV Chart for that company. |
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