Molycorp, owner of the largest rare-earth deposit outside China, dropped the most in three months after JPMorgan Chase lowered its earnings estimate and price target because Chinese export quotas won’t fall next year.
Greenwood Village-based Molycorp’s stock fell 14 percent to $24.04 in New York, the biggest decline since Sept. 20. The Chinese government said Tuesday it will keep 2012 export quotas virtually unchanged.
That, coupled with planned increases in production by Molycorp and Australia’s Lynas Corp., “will put additional downward pressure on rare-earth prices,” Michael Gambardella, a New York-based analyst at JPMorgan, wrote in a note Tuesday.
Prices for rare earths — 17 metallic elements used in products that include batteries, electric cars and wind turbines — jumped in 2010 after China said it would cut exports by 72 percent to conserve resources and protect the environment. Bloomberg News
