Mining firm Molycorp said Tuesday that it expects to raise about $448 million from an initial public offering.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Greenwood Village-based Molycorp said it will sell 28.13 million shares of common stock at a projected price of $15 to $17 per share.
The firm’s main asset is the Mountain Pass rare-earth minerals mine and mill in California, 50 miles south of Las Vegas.
The offering is the first major IPO for a Colorado company since DigitalGlobe went public last year.
Molycorp’s public stock sale, combined with privately owned shares, would give it a market capitalization of about $1.3 billion. That would place it in the top one-third of Colorado’s public companies and roughly equivalent in size to Vail Resorts and homebuilder MDC Holdings.
Firm officials would not comment Tuesday on the offering, citing the SEC’s “quiet period” regulations.
Rare-earth minerals are used in hybrid and electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines; high-tech products including fiber optics, lasers and hard disk drives; and defense applications such as radar and guidance systems.
In a prospectus, Molycorp has described itself as the only rare-earth minerals producer in the Western Hemisphere. The Mountain Pass mine is one of the world’s largest rare-earth mines outside of China, Molycorp said.
Mountain Pass has been mostly inactive since 2002. Molycorp plans to use proceeds from the public offering to reopen and expand the mine.
Analysts have said that domestic production of rare-earth minerals will become increasingly important because China recently said it will cut export quotas by 72 percent in the second half of this year.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
