Rare earth metals company receives financing

Molycorp Inc., Greenwood Village, Colorado, has received bankruptcy court approval for $22 million in interim financing provided by an affiliate of Oaktree Capital Management, Los Angeles. The new funds are intended to “support operations going forward for an interim period while the company continues to negotiate with Oaktree and a group representing the secured 10 percent noteholders, both of which represent secured creditors that have presented competing debtor-in-possession (DIP) lending proposals,” says the company.

Molycorp refers to itself as a global, vertically integrated producer of rare earth products used in many electronic, transportation, industrial and clean energy applications.” Some of the company’s R&D efforts have been geared toward setting up a recycling system to harvest and recycle rare earth metals from discarded electronics and fluorescent light bulbs.

Molycorp is a joint venture partner in Buss & Buss Spezialmetalle GmbH, Sagard, Germany, which is a hydrometallurgical recovery plant for recycling rhenium from superalloys producing catalyst grade APR (ammonium perrhenate) and high-purity metal grade rhenium pellets. Buss & Buss also recycles tantalum using primarily a pyrometallurgical process. 

The Bankruptcy Court of the District of Delaware approved the financing facility “solely on an interim basis,” Molycorp states in an early July 2015 news release, and scheduled a final hearing regarding DIP financing for July 20, 2015.

The company says it now has the funds to continue its operations and to move forward on releasing funds to pay some suppliers, as previously approved by the court.

Molycorp filed its voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 June 25, 2015. The company is being advised by the investment banking firm of Miller Buckfire & Co. and is receiving financial advice from AlixPartners, LLP. Jones Day and Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor LLP are acting as legal counsel to the company in this process.