The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has given authorization to Molycorp in order to start the exploratory drill program at a heavy rare earths occurrence, which is situated near the flagship rare earth manufacturing unit at Mountain Pass in California.
Mark A. Smith, CEO and President of the company, stated this authorization is a significant milestone in the heavy rare earth strategy. The company is expecting to immediately commence the drilling program. It is also anticipates the drill program results during the second quarter of 2012. He has praised the U.S. Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management for the complete and efficient evaluation of the drill program.
The company’s initial exploration campaign at the drill location has demonstrated the mineralization of rare earth elements with the ore grade averaging around 4% and a comparatively high proportion of heavy rare earths, like dysprosium, europium, terbium and samarium, and quite a high percentage of neodymium, praseodymium and yttrium.
Molycorp is the company based in the US, which has completely incorporated across the supply chain of rare earth mine-to-magnets. The company has produced rare earth alloys, such as samarium-cobalt alloys neodymium-iron-boron and rare earth metals and rare metals, like tantalum and niobium.
Source: http://www.molycorp.com/