Molycorp (XSWX:MCP) Risk Assessment

Molycorp Inc, formerly known as Rare Earth Acquisitions LLC, was formed on March 4, 2010 as a new Delaware corporation. The Company manufactures custom engineered rare earth and rare metal products. Its business is organized into four reportable segments: Resources; Chemicals and Oxides; Magnetic Materials and Alloys; and Rare Metals. The Resources segment includes its operations at the Molycorp Mountain Pass Rare Earth Facility, where it conducts rare earth minerals extraction to produce: rare earth concentrates; REO, including lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium, and yttrium; heavy rare earth concentrates, which include samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and others; and SorbXTM, a line of proprietary rare earth-based water treatment products. The Chemicals and Oxides segment includes: production of REO at its operations at Molycorp Silmet; separated heavy rare earth oxides and other custom engineered materials from its facilities in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, China; and production of REO, salts of rare earth elements, or REEs, zirconium-based engineered materials and mixed rare earth/zirconium oxides from its facilities in Zibo, Shandong Province, China. The Magnetic Materials and Alloys segment includes: the production of Neo Powders through its wholly-owned manufacturing facilities in Tianjin, China, and Korat, Thailand, under the Molycorp Magnequench brand. This operating segment also includes manufacturing of neodymium and samarium magnet alloys, other specialty alloy products and rare earth metals at its MMA facility, located in Tolleson, Arizona. The Rare Metals segment produces, reclaims, refines and markets high value niche metals and their compounds that include gallium, indium, rhenium, tantalum, and niobium. Applications from products made in this segment include wireless technologies, LED, flat panel display, turbine, solar, catalyst, steel additive, electronics applications, and others. The Company's operations are subject to numerous and detailed international, national, federal, state and local laws, regulations and permits affecting the mining and mineral processing industry, including those pertaining to employee health and safety, environmental permitting and licensing, air quality standards, greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions, water usage and disposal, pollution, waste management, plant and wildlife protection, handling and disposal of radioactive substances, remediation of soil and groundwater contamination, land use, reclamation and restoration of properties, the discharge of materials into the environment and groundwater quality and availability.