E-Scrap News Magazine: California rare earth mine suspends production

California rare earth mine suspends production

By Editorial Staff, E-Scrap News

August 27, 2015

Citing depressed prices, rare earth company Molycorp has decided to temporarily halt production at its Mountain Pass, Calif. mine, the company announced.

The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company announced it will transition the facility to a "care and maintenence" mode by Oct. 20. Its customers who rely on rare earths to produce magnets for electronics will not be affected, the company said.

Prices have fallen dramatically for rare earths over the past four years, the main reason Molycorp is suspending production at Mountain Pass, according to Molycorp, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

China mines the majority of rare earth elements used in electronics. In the late 2000s, China began limiting exports, sending prices to record levels in 2010 and spurring investment in U.S. production capacity and rare earth recycling efforts. Then, China relaxed export restrictions, and some companies found alternatives to rare earths.

A number of enterprises have been launched to recover rare earths from recovered electronics.

The open pit Mountain Pass mine, located between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, produces lighter rare earth elements used in devices such as phones, but they fetch lower prices than the heavier ones mined at Molycorp's operation in Canada, according to The Denver Post.

The California mine was inactive from 2002 to 2010 and re-opened in mid-2014 after three years of facility improvements. Molycorp called it "one of the world's most technologically advanced, energy efficient and environmentally progressive rare earth facilities."

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the facility produced most of the world's rare earth elements.

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