Molycorp Minerals Begins Preparations for Renewed Mining

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.--(Business Wire)--
Molycorp Minerals, LLC announced today that it has begun preparations for
renewed mining of the world class Rare Earth ore deposit at its Mountain Pass,
California production facility. Molycorp, which is currently producing
approximately four million pounds of Rare Earth products per year, announced
earlier this year that it was restarting production at Mountain Pass with plans
to ramp up annual production to 40 million pounds of Rare Earth products over a
three-year period.

Molycorp`s Mountain Pass Plant Manager, Rocky Smith, stated that, "Consistent
with our plans to ramp up production to 40 million pounds per year by 2012, we
have begun the process of readying the Mountain Pass ore body for active mining.
The first portion of the process will be to dewater the mine, which involves the
removal of water that has accumulated at the bottom of the mine since conclusion
of the last mining operations in 2002. This will be followed by the removal of
overburden to expose an area of fresh ore that will be needed to feed Molycorp`s
production beginning in 2012. The dewatering process is expected to take
approximately 12 months, followed by an additional 12 months for removal of
overburden, which will allow us to begin mining, crushing and milling fresh ore
in plenty of time to meet our needs for full production in 2012."

Molycorp CEO, Mark Smith (not related to Rocky Smith), explained that because
the Rare Earth ore body at Mountain Pass is so rich, continuous mining is not
necessary in order to produce enough ore to keep Molycorp`s Rare Earth
production facilities running full time. Mr. Smith went on to say, "The amount
of previously mined material stockpiled at Mountain Pass from prior mining is
sufficient to support our planned production rate until 2012 at which time we
will conduct a mining campaign to produce and stockpile enough new ore to
support operations for an additional two to three years. Thereafter, we will
conduct mining campaigns at two or three-year intervals, which should be
sufficient to support full production of finished Rare Earth products at the
planned rate of 40 million pounds per year." Mr. Smith concluded by saying, "As
the only western producer of Rare Earth materials, Molycorp is proud to be
playing a key role in helping to assure America`s energy, economic and national
security, by assuring a secure supply of these critical and indispensable
materials that are ultimately utilized in the production of hybrid and electric
cars, wind power turbines, various high-tech applications and numerous advanced
defense systems."

Molycorp Minerals, LLC, with headquarters in Greenwood Village, Colorado, is a
private, U.S. rare earth producer and technology company. As the owner of the
world`s most abundant rare earth deposit outside of China, and a leader in rare
earth technology, Molycorp Minerals supplies a variety of rare earth materials
that are critical to emerging Green Energy technologies, High-Tech applications
and numerous Defense Systems. As the leading western supplier, Molycorp Minerals
markets rare earth materials from its world class rare earth deposit in Mountain
Pass, California.

For more information, please contact Molycorp Minerals at +1-303-843-8040 or
visit www.Molycorp.com.

Molycorp Minerals, LLC
John Ashburn, 303-843-8088
www.Molycorp.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009