Molycorp shares jump on full year results, outlook

By the close of regular trading on Monday some 7.6 million shares had changed hands with the counter adding more than 6% after hours hitting a high of $5.54 a share from the close of $5.22.

After another 1.8 million shares traded the volatile stock was down again to end the day little changed. Molycorp’s value is down 9.6% over the past year and nowhere neat its peak in 2011 above $70.

Molcorp’s reported 12% decline in Q4 sales volume of 3,201 tonnes at an average $38.68 per kilogram selling price and a revenue slump of 17% to $123.8 million.

Full year figures looked better with sales of 13,118 tonnes, a 42% increase over 2012, at an average price of $42.26 per kilogram. Net revenues for the year were $554.4 million, a 5% increase as compared to 2012.

The $1.3 billion company reported a net loss of $0.95 per share for the quarter and $2.21 per share for the full 2013 financial year.

On the operational side Molycorp announced that the Chlor-Alkali plant at its Mountain Pass, California rare earth facility is now operational, which should boost production volumes and lower costs.

“Putting our Chlor-Alkali plant into operation is a major milestone. Producing our own chemical reagents and reducing our water discharge will lower our costs, and this unit further reduces the environmental footprint of rare earth production at Mountain Pass,” said Molycorp President and CEO Geoff Bedford. “It will play a key role in helping us achieve operating break-even cash flow, before interest, this year.”