Greenwood Village-based Molycorp Inc. said today that it has purchased the remaining shares of Molycorp Silmet AS, one of only two rare-earth processing companies in Europe.
Molycorp now owns 100 percent of the Sillamäe, Estonia-based facility, after purchasing a 90 percent stake for $89 million in April.
“Our purchase of the Silmet facility has proven to be highly accretive to Molycorp’s global operations, and we see this purchase of the remaining shares of Molycorp Sillamäe as bringing additional value to our company,” said Mark A. Smith, Molycorp’s president and chief executive officer.
Smith noted that Molycorp recently established neodymium metal production at the Sillamäe facility, part of the company’s plan to build a global mine-to-magnets manufacturing supply chain.
Applications for the rare-earth minerals include electric vehicles and wind power turbines, fiber optics and lasers, guidance and control systems and water treatment technologies.
