Hints and tips:
...Set against Mr Clarke in the auction is a group of Molycorp creditor hedge funds....
...Molycorp, which once had a market capitalisation of $6bn, symbolised the boom and bust in the rare earths market....
...The petition by Molycorp, based in Colorado, marks a sharp turnround for a company whose shares reached a peak in 2011 of $79, giving it a market capitalisation of more than $6bn....
...As a result, Molycorp reported a $450m loss for 2012 and a $386m loss last year. Lynas has also struggled....
...And Lynas, and its other ex-China rival Molycorp of the US, make a lot of cerium. That is the bad news....
...In 2011 Molycorp made an $118m profit. Since then, prices have slumped. Last year Molycorp’s average selling price for rare earth concentrates fell from $82 per kilogramme to about $36....
...This double squeeze on Molycorp’s cash pushed it from net cash to net debt of $780m during the 12 months to September....
...Molycorp and Lynas – the most advanced in terms of developing commercially producing mines – have had a torrid year....
...Molycorp was advised by Morgan Stanley, which is also a lender for the deal along with Credit Suisse....
...In contrast, shares in Molycorp plunged 17.6 per cent to $14.35 and ended down 4.6 per cent at $16.62....
...For example, rare earths elements, whose short supply due to Chinese machinations spurred a boom in companies that own non-producing mines elsewhere, such as Molycorp, are not rare at all....
...Among the stocks that triggered circuit breakers on Wednesday were Molycorp, CoreLogic, Kronos Worldwide, China Cord Blood Corporation and Trinity Industries....
...mining sector, excluding coal and steel companies, are up almost 40 per cent so far this year, compared with the already-strong start to 2011, with Toronto-listed Inmet Mining, Thompson Creek, New Gold, and Molycorp...
...In the materials sector Californian rare earth metal miner Molycorp fell 14.1 per cent to $24.04, after the Chinese government raised its export quota for rare earths, putting downward pressure on prices...
...Shares in Californian rare-earth miner Molycorp climbed 4.8 per cent to $25.12 after the company said more than three-quarters of phase-one production at its flagship California manufacturing facility had...
...He said the world sorely needs new suppliers of rare earths, including Lynas and US-listed Molycorp, but also pointed out that China also welcomed the arrival of alternative suppliers....
...Jiangxi Copper rose 1 per cent and AngangSteel gained 1.5 per cent in Hong Kong while Daido Steel, a Japanese maker of steel products, surged 6.3 per cent in Tokyo after signing a joint venture with US-based Molycorp...
...Molycorp, which owns a rare earth mine in California, was up 12 per cent to $66.34, after it purchased a 90 per cent stake in AS Silmet, a rare earth processing facility in Europe, in a deal valued at $89m...
...Molycorp was up 13.4 per cent to $67.19 over the week while Equinox Minerals gained 35.8 per cent to $8.05. The S&P materials sector was up 0.2 per cent over the five days....
...Mitsubishi Corp has signed a contract to buy rare earths from Molycorp and has already received its first shipment from inventories kept by the company....
...Molycorp , which owns a rare earth mine in California, surged 6.8 per cent to $49.32 while Rare Element Resources soared 13.5 per cent to $14.69 and Arafura Resources jumped 11.1 per cent to $1.36....
...Molycorp shares rose 18% to $32.86 on Monday after Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported Sumitomo’s interest....
...Molycorp has soared 26.8 per cent in the past five days with rival Rare Element Resources rocketing 68.9 per cent over the week....
...Colorado-based Molycorp has signed a contract to sell rare earths to Mitsubishi Corp and has been in talks with Sumitomo Corp, Japan’s third-biggest importer, to invest in production in the US....
International Edition