TORONTO, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Thompson Creek Metals (TCM.TO) is seeking development projects in the hopes of expanding molybdenum output as demand rises for the metal, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
In a presentation at a mining conference in New York, CEO Kevin Loughrey said the company, was eyeing molybdenum, or moly, projects that were close to producing. It would also look at deposits with other metals in combination with molybdenum, used for making steel.
"We are clearly in an acquisition mode. We're out there looking at properties," he said, "The logical space to expand outside of moly, if we were to do that, would be in copper-moly."
Loughrey said the company was looking primarily in North America but would also consider assets in South America.
"We're not limiting ourselves," he said.
The Colorado-based company had a cash position of $478 million and $14 million in debt at Sept. 30, but has suffered from a sharp drop in molybdenum prices in the past year.
Realized prices for the metal, used primarily as a steel-hardening agent, were $12.75 a pound in the recent quarter, down from $32.85 in the year-before period, just before the economic slowdown eroded demand for building products.
However, Loughrey sees demand increasing due to recovering economic activity and new uses for the metal, while supply should be constrained by delayed development of new mines due to the financial crisis.
The company expects global demand for the metal to rise to 600 million lbs by 2015 from about 460 million lbs this year.
Loughrey also noted China has become a net importer of molybdenum, as the metal's price decline forced the country to shut many of its relatively high-cost small mines.
In fact, Thompson Creek sold a portion of its produced molybdenum to China this year, he said.
The company curtailed production this year due to weak prices, but is ramping it up for next year due to recent improvements in the market.
It mines from the Thompson Creek mine in Idaho and the Endako mine in British Columbia, while it is also developing the high-grade Davidson deposit, also in B.C.
Further out, Thompson Creek aims to mine the Mt. Emmons deposit in Colorado, which it calls one of the largest, highest-grade, undeveloped molybdenum deposits in the world. The company has an option to acquire as much as 75 percent of the project, which is currently owned by U.S. Energy Corp (USEG.O).
MOL Price at posting:
$1.05 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
