Molycorp Awards EPC Contract for Chlor-Alkali Facility to KBR

Molycorp, Inc. MCP today announced the award of an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contract by a wholly owned subsidiary to KBR KBR to build a Chlor-Alkali plant as part of Molycorp's state-of-the-art, $781 million Project Phoenix expansion and modernization at its flagship rare earth facility at Mountain Pass, Calif. The Chlor-Alkali facility will be used in a highly innovative way to allow Molycorp to recycle virtually all of the water used in the chemical separation of individual rare earth elements at Mountain Pass. The Chlor-Alkali process also is key to Molycorp's ability to recycle the chemical reagents needed in rare earth oxide manufacture. Such recycling will greatly reduce the environmental footprint of U.S. rare earth production at Mountain Pass, as well as help to position Molycorp as the world's lowest-cost producer of high-purity rare earth oxides beginning in 2012. “We are pleased to be achieving another significant milestone in Project Phoenix with this contract award, and to be moving forward with the construction of our Chlor-Alkali facilty," said Dr. John L. Burba, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President for Molycorp. "The innovative use we will make of this highly reliable technology will help position Molycorp to be both environmentally superior in our rare earth manufacturing as well as the world's lowest-cost producer."