“ To ensure we are cost competitive with the Chinese supply ,” Smith notes , “ we are looking at making significant improvements to our cost effectiveness via our energy costs and chemical consumption . On top of that , we are looking at newer technologies to help us improve our ore recovery , extract high purity metals and to get a high level of process automation to drive costs down .
“ If you look at the rare earth mineral consumption and supply worldwide and compare that against what percentage of that is coming from China today , you can see that there is going to be a gap in supply within the next two to three years ,” Smith says . “ That is the impetus behind Molycorp to ramp up production . We are trying to be ahead of the curve to meet market demand .” The process of modernizing Molycorp ’ s mining and production operations is no small feat . According to Smith , the company specialized in the mining and production of ore and concentrates , but intends to develop an entire range of products such as metals , alloys and magnets . “ The new facility , which will employ newer technology , we will move toward pure metals and alloys and lastly , move toward magnet manufacturing ,” he explains .
New technology
To compete with low-cost producers in an environmentally sound manner , Molycorp will have to integrate new technology into operations that are somewhat dated . “ The Mountain Pass facility is 57 years old , so the technology here is mostly 1970s vintage , and there have been a lot of improvements in the technologies in milling , flotation , leaching , extraction , etc ., and we are taking advantage of these improvements and employing new technologies ,” Smith notes . “ We are also doing research work to improve
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