正如一名分析师所说的那样，假如把稀土矿业公司比作新的网络股，那么莫利矿业公司(Molycorp)俨然就是亚马逊(Amazon)。
凭借今年8月融得的3.79亿美元资金，以及一项经过证实有着大规模生产历史的资产，这家总部位于科罗拉多州的公司现在似乎处在独一无二的有利地位，可从中国限制稀土出口引发的稀土供应担忧中获利。
然而，若想实现成为50年来首家在美国开采稀土矿的公司的梦想，即便是市值已达26亿美元左右的莫利矿业，也需要跨过几个障碍。
如果不是因为特别稀有，稀土根本不会受到关注。这种矿产对于制造各种高科技产品（从智能手机到巡航导弹）至关重要，而中国的稀土产量占全球的97%。
一些安全专家主张，美国的稀土生产在商业方面存在许多变数，因此需要政府扶持。
莫利矿业的矿山位于加州东部莫哈韦沙漠的帕斯山。曾经有几十年，这里一直是美国唯一的稀土来源，产量约占全球的一半。
此前，该矿山由美国石油集团优尼科(Unocal)所有。2005年，中海油(CNOOC)曾竞购过优尼科，此举曾引发美国对稀土的担忧。
后来，美国第二大石油公司雪佛龙(Chevron)收购了优尼科，使之摆脱了中海油的追逐。接着在2008年，雪佛龙将矿山出售给了私人股本投资者，包括资源资本基金(Resource Capital Funds)和高盛(Goldman Sachs)。
曾为优尼科掌管这块业务的马克•史密斯(Mark Smith)成为莫利矿业首席执行官。
截至那时，帕斯山矿山已关闭六年。2002年，该矿山失去了生产牌照，因为此前受到镉和铅等金属污染的废水出现泄露。
2004年，优尼科重新获得牌照，有效期30年。但稀土价格当时萎靡不振，2001年上半年至2002年底，稀土价格下跌逾50%。莫利矿业认定，该矿山的生产已不具经济效益。
但该公司认为，这块业务仍值得投资。2004年至2006年，该公司一直致力于找到加工稀土矿石的新方法，以消除污染风险。
今年8月，莫利矿业通过首次公开发行(IPO)融资3.79亿美元。迄今股价已累计上涨约160%。
这笔资金将用来在帕斯山建设采矿设施，明年年初将破土动工，计划于2012年底投产。
莫利矿业的目标是每年生产约1.9万吨稀土产品，占全球产量的约六分之一，超过美国需求总量。
然而，该项目的总成本预计为5.11亿美元，因此融资缺口约为1.5亿美元。要填补这一缺口，有三种选择：设备销售商提供的卖方融资，商业银行贷款——该公司已聘用法国巴黎银行(BNP Paribas)安排相关交易——或者以美国政府拨款为担保的贷款。
莫利矿业早先曾申请过这类贷款，并遭到拒绝，但它现在正尝试再次申请。
融资工作很复杂，因为稀土价格波动很大。
举例来说，银行不得不做出判断：氧化铈的价格将接近哪个水平，是每磅1.83美元的三年平均水平，还是9月份的每磅16.33美元。
阴谋论者提出，中国可能会增加出口，目的是再度压低价格，这可能会让外国稀土生产商停业。
行业组织Technology and Rare Earth Metals Centre的亚龙•沃罗纳(Yaron Vorona)警告称，环境规定或其它政策的变化可能会扼杀美国的稀土生产。
他表示：“现在的一个问题是，该行业无法防范政策风险。”
莫利矿业辩称，该公司考虑到了这些问题。它表示，新的分离加工方法将避免产生环境问题，同时还会让该公司的生产成本降至中国竞争对手的一半。该公司正在使用这一方法加工2002年以前开采出的矿石。
对这个曾经大起大落的行业来说，未来可能会出现更多状况。
译者/梁艳裳
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001035249
If rare-earth mining companies are the new dotcom stocks, as one analyst has put it, then Molycorp looks the most like Amazon.
With a $379m fundraising in August and an asset with a proven history of large-scale production, the Colorado-based company seems uniquely well-placed to profit from the alarm over supplies of rare earths caused by restrictions on Chinese exports.
Yet, even Molycorp, with a market capitalisation of about $2.6bn, still has several obstacles to surmount to realise its ambition of becoming the first company to open a rare-earth mine in the US for five decades.
Rare earths, minerals that are obscure if not particularly rare, are vital for the manufacturing of high-tech products from smartphones to cruise missiles, and China accounts for 97 per cent of world production.
Some security experts argue that US production of rare earths is so commercially uncertain that it needs government support.
Molycorp’s mine – Mountain Pass in the Mojave desert, eastern California – was for decades the sole source of rare earths in the US, accounting for about half of global production.
The mine was previously owned by Unocal, the US oil group that was bid for by Cnooc of China in 2005; a move that stirred up US concerns about rare earths.
Chevron, the second- biggest American oil company, bought Unocal to keep it out of Cnooc’s hands and then in 2008 sold the mine to private equity investors, including Resource Capital Funds and Goldman Sachs.
Mark Smith, who ran the business for Unocal, became chief executive.
By then, Mountain Pass had been shut for six years. It lost its licence to produce in 2002, after leaks of waste water contaminated with metals such as cadmium and lead.
In 2004, Unocal managed to renew the licence, for 30 years, but rare-earths prices were weak – they fell more than 50 per cent between the first half of 2001 and the end of 2002 – and the company decided that production was uneconomic.
However, it decided the business was still worth investing in and spent 2004-06 working on new ways to process the ore, to remove the pollution risk.
It raised $379m in the initial public offering in August, and since then the shares have risen about 160 per cent.
The money will be used to build facilities at Mountain Pass, with ground broken at the start of next year, to enable production to be started by the end of 2012.
The target is to produce about 19,000 tonnes of rare-earth products per year: about one-sixth of global production and more than the entire US demand.
However, the total cost of its project is estimated at $511m, so it has a funding gap of about $150m. There are three options for filling it: vendor finance from equipment sellers, commercial bank lending – the company has hired BNP Paribas to arrange a facility – or loans backed by US government grants.
A previous application was rejected, but Molycorp is now trying again.
The financing is complicated because rare-earths prices are so volatile.
Lenders have to judge whether cerium oxide, for example, will be closer to its three-year average of $1.83 per pound or its $16.33 per pound in September.
Conspiracy theorists suggest China could raise its exports in order to drive prices back down again, potentially shutting down foreign producers.
Yaron Vorona of the Technology and Rare Earth Metals Centre, an industry group, warns that changes in environmental regulation or other policies could stifle US production.
“One of the issues here is the inability of the industry to insure itself against policy risk,” he says.
Molycorp argues that it has those issue covered. It says its new separation process, which it is using with ore mined before 2002, will both avoid environmental issues and allow it to produce at half the cost of the Chinese competitors.
In a sector that has shown huge volatility, there is likely to be more to come.
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