The Non-Chinese Global REE Derby, page-10

Re. uranium at Mountain Pass: "Mountain Pass, CaliforniaThe Mountain Pass deposit was discovered by a uranium prospector in 1949. It dominated worldwide REE production from the 1960s to the 1990s, and was recommissioned to again be a major producer from 2014. Molycorp Inc spent $781 million on modernising and expanding its plant, which reached 19,000 t/yr capacity in 2012 – slightly more than US demand – and 20,000 t/yr in 2014. However, by June 2015 Molycorp had accumulated debt of $1.7 billion and filed for bankruptcy. When China restricted its exports in 2010 Molycorp had a market value of $6 billion. Remaining resources in carbonatite are about 1.6 million tonnes REE averaging 8.24%, with 5% cut-off. It produced both heavy and light rare earth concentrates. The company made no mention of uranium as byproduct, but thorium is present in monazite.Molycorp was restructured in 2016 as Neo Performance Materials. In 2017 the mine was sold for $20.5 million to a consortium – MP Mine Operations – backed by China’s Leshan Shenghe Rare Earth Co, with 10% equity and with JHL Capital Group holding 65%. It is operated by MP Materials and ships semi-processed output for refining in China."

Also kinda interesting:

https://www.epa.gov/hwcorrectiveactionsites/hazardous-waste-cleanup-chevron-molycorp-washington-remediation-project

https://investorintel.com/sectors/technology-metals/technology-metals-intel/lifton-on-why-molycorp-failed/

I see MP Materials as a Lynas competitor in a relatively short time..

The big question on when MP will be up and running is what shape is the plant in. the BK judge pulled funds, even for guards. No mention if the two brand new GE NG turbines for Electric and waste heat are still there. they were expensive and sort of portable. but not much of a market for hot ones. Few understand that the plant itself was running at spec. the problem was the alkaline plant which made the water reusable and recovered acids and caustics through electrolysis had a Major flaw as they scaled up from early production. They had input filters to catch sediment since there were no settling pounds per agreement with US EPA. The original idea was that a section at a time could be taken down and quickly backed washed. The accumulation was so fast that they increased backwash pressure it ruined filters. this caused them to Truck waste to LA for treatment and buy solvents more than tripling COP. They tested new filters and they worked. Unfortunately it was a 8 figure improvement and with the high debt load and losing money on every KG shipped. OakTree said "that's it" and pulled plug and forced BK. The big question is what is easily recoverable and to that I have no answer. Also if you look at the US patents applied for and granted. Two people did most of the hard intellectual work. Also some patents were bought or licensed from 3M. A critical question is can they bring back these people or how long will it take for new people to get up to speed.

MP is a wild card no idea if it will work or not but It should be watched carefully. My guess is earliest impact on Lynas 3~4 years away but who knows. I surly don't Other unknown is how fast the REO market will grow It has disappointed continuously for many years. I think 2 or 3 years ago Adamus said NDPr would be USD 100 in 2020. High REO prices have been 2 or 3 years away for many years. When they come lots of room for MP and Lynas. question is when do they come? If MP comes up faster than I think and Demand is still low unlikely I will touch MP. and it may keep me away from Lynas both depend on what the balance sheets, cash sheet and P&L look like. COP will be critical.