Thursday, May 5, 2011

UPDATED: "Molycorp Ready to Buy Other Rare Earth Miners: CEO" (MCP)

Update: MCP's acquisition currency (the stock) is a bit less valuabable: "Molycorp Reports, Disappoints. Collapses (MCP)"
Original post:
After a bit of a reality check yesterday, down 7.13% at $72.01 the stock is down another 2% at $70.60 in early premarket trade.
I said in "Chartology: After Molycorp's Recent Weakness Where is the Stock Going? (MCP)" that the $60-62.50 was a reasonable target but in the two weeks since that post the stock is almost exactly unchanged.
Not that there hasn't been some action in the interim.
Here's the chart:
From CNBC:
Molycorp is ready to buy other rare earth mining companies should the opportunity arise, said Chief Executive Mark Smith told CNBC Wednesday.
"Molycorp [MCP  72.01    -5.53  (-7.13%)   ] is always interested in opportunities that increase shareholder value or add to our long-term business strategies," he said. 

"We are looking at a number of opportunities. I've said before and I’ll say it again, there are more opportunities in the rare earth field today than I’ve seen in the past 25 years." 

The Colorado company, with a market cap of $5.8 billion, made two acquisitions in April. It is the largest of the US miner of rare earths, a group of 17 elements that are widely used in consumer electronic items.
The US market as a whole is small at 13 percent, compared with China, which produces 70 percent of rare earth minerals. 

"I take a look at the very simple economics of our company and the supply and demand characteristics worldwide for these minerals and I think we’ve got a lot of room to run," Smith said.
Chinese supply "isn’t going to change dramatically," he said. "Internal country demand in China is growing rapidly. They need to keep those minerals in country."

What has changed dramatically is Molycorp's stock price. Smith said he knows hedge funds and others are buying on interest in the sector, running up the stock price....MORE, including video.
Recently: 
And many, many more. We've been on the rare earth beat for two years. use the search blog box if you desire.
I'll be back with some acquisition candidates in the next few days.