American Elements Strongly Supports Molycorp-Neo Materials Acquisition

LOS ANGELES, March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The announcement last week that Molycorp is acquiring Canadian-based Neo Materials has raised strategic concerns in the U.S. since a significant portion of Neo Materials production is in China.  In a reversal of the status quo, Molycorp will presumably be shipping U.S. mined rare earths to China. Some are asserting this is a danger to U.S. defense and commercial interests; particularly American permanent magnet producers.

However, American Elements believes the acquisition is in fact good news for U.S. rare earth consumers, both military and commercial, since the legitimate concern today is the potential differential between domestic Chinese prices versus prices its exporters charge globally; giving a possible unfair advantage to Chinese manufacturers. This was the subject of a recent WTO ruling against China.

American Elements President Michael Silver stated Sunday, "Given Molycorp can be counted on to respect WTO and U.S. trade laws, the acquisition should in fact have the effect of encouraging equalization of Chinese export and Chinese domestic rare earth prices."

Silver cautioned against xenophobia and added, "Rare earth prices should be expected to remain high, so an even playing field globally is critical.  Infusing a publicly traded U.S. rare earth mining company directly into the Chinese supply chain will greatly contribute to open transparent trade and market-based prices which redounds to everyone's benefit."

American Elements is the world's manufacturer of engineered & advanced materials with corporate offices and primary research & laboratory facilities in the United States and manufacturing & warehousing in the United States, China, Mexico and the United Kingdom. www.americanelements.com .

Contact:  Robert Wynne, 310.540.7204, [email protected]

SOURCE American Elements

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