Molycorp Announces Filing of Claim in Colorado Federal District Court
Molycorp, Inc.'s (NYSE: MCP) ('Molycorp? or the 'Company?) Executive VP
and General Counsel, John F. Ashburn, Jr., today announced that the
Company has filed a claim against M&K Chemical Engineering Consultants,
Inc. ('M&K?) and certain current and former officers and owners of M&K
in Colorado Federal District Court arising from a commercial dispute
over defects in engineering services related to the Company′s Project
Phoenix modernization and expansion of its Mountain Pass, California,
facility.
While the Company generally does not comment on active disputes, Mr.
Ashburn indicated that, due to the high level of public interest in the
Project, he wanted to ensure that the reasons underlying the dispute
were clear.
Mr. Ashburn said that the claim was filed in an attempt to recover a
portion of the costs incurred by the Company in rectifying defective
engineering services for which the Company believes the defendants are
responsible and that the effects of the defective engineering underlying
the claim have already been largely mitigated by the Company′s
Technology Group and other engineering companies working on the Project.
Those defects will not impact the timing of the Company′s plans to ramp
up production at its Mountain Pass facility, Mr. Ashburn said, and the
Company still expects to achieve full Phase 1 production rates by the
end of the current quarter as previously announced.
Mr. Ashburn noted that, while unfortunate, the claim filed by Molycorp
essentially amounts to nothing more than a commercial dispute over
monetary damages.
About Molycorp, Inc.
Molycorp is a leading rare earths and rare metals company, and combines
a world-class rare earth resource at Mountain Pass, California, with
advanced, high-purity rare earth and rare metal materials processing
capabilities. With 26 locations across 11 countries, Molycorp is
vertically integrated across the global rare earth mine-to-magnetics
supply chain. It produces rare earth magnetic materials as well as a
variety of high-purity, custom engineered products from 13 different
rare earths (lights and heavies) as well as five rare metals (gallium,
indium, rhenium, tantalum and niobium), and the transition metals
yttrium and zirconium. Through its Molycorp Magnequench subsidiary, the
Company is a leading global producer of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB)
magnet powders, used to manufacture bonded NdFeB permanent rare earth
magnets. Through its joint venture with Daido Steel and Mitsubishi
Corporation, Molycorp expects to begin manufacturing next-generation,
sintered NdFeB permanent rare earth magnets in early 2013. For more
information please visit www.molycorp.com.
Safe Harbor 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:
Molycorp's ability to complete its planned capital projects, such as its
initial modernization and expansion efforts, including the achievement
of an annual production capacity of 19,050 metric tons at its Mountain
Pass, California rare earth mine and processing facility, or the
Molycorp Mountain Pass facility, which management refers to as Project
Phoenix Phase 1, and the second phase capacity expansion plan, which
management refers to as Project Phoenix Phase 2, and reach full planned
production rates for REO and other planned downstream products, in each
case within the projected time frame; and the outcome of disputes with
contractors regarding defective engineering services. 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,
2011 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.
Molycorp, Inc.
Jim Sims, +1 303-843-8062
Vice
President, Corporate Communications
Jim.Sims@Molycorp.com
or
Brian
Blackman, +1 303-843-8067
Senior Manager, Investor Relations
Brian.Blackman@molycorp.com
