Molycorp awards Chlor-Alkali plant contract to KBR

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, US: Molycorp Inc awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract by a wholly owned subsidiary to KBR, to build a Chlor-Alkali plant as part of Molycorp’s, $781 million project Phoenix expansion and modernization at its flagship rare earth facility at Mountain Pass, Calif.

The Chlor-Alkali facility will be used in a highly innovative way to allow Molycorp to recycle virtually all of the water used in the chemical separation of individual rare earth elements at Mountain Pass. The Chlor-Alkali process is also key to Molycorp’s ability to recycle the chemical reagents needed in rare earth oxide manufacture. Such recycling will greatly reduce the environmental footprint of US rare earth production at Mountain Pass, as well as help to position Molycorp as the world’s lowest-cost producer of high-purity rare earth oxides beginning in 2012.

“This is another significant milestone in project Phoenix with the contract award and to be moving forward with the construction of our Chlor-Alkali facilty,” said Dr John L Burba, Chief Technology Officer and Executive VP, Molycorp.

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