$500 Million Spend to Reopen Big Moly Mine USWell, somebody thinks moly is worth spending big time capex on, note, no new production until 2010:
Company to Reopen Historic Climax Molybdenum Mine
DENVER (AP) -- One of the world's biggest copper mining companies said Tuesday it will spend $500 million to reopen a historic molybdenum mine high in the Rockies southwest of Denver.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. said it will hire 150 to 500 workers during the construction phase, which will begin immediately but not get fully under way until next spring. The work force will be about 350 when production begins in 2010.
The initial project calls for reopening an open pit operation and construction of a new milling facility. The company said it will look at expanding the operation at a future time.
The decision comes as international demand has grown for molybdenum, which is used primarily for strengthening steel.
Built at 11,400 feet in the Rockies about 100 miles southwest of Denver, the mine opened in April 1918 when steel demands during World War I created a molybdenum boom.
Once the world's largest underground mine, Climax employed about 3,200 people until the price of molybdenum plummeted in the 1980s. It closed in 1987 but reopened in 1995 when molybdenum prices rose for a time. Since 1995, it has been on a maintenance status.
Phoenix-based Freeport acquired the Climax mine and the Henderson molybdenum mine near Empire, Colo., in March when it bought Phelps Dodge Corp. for $25.9 billion in cash and stock.
The previous year, Phelps Dodge had decided to restart the mine but the final decision was put on hold pending a feasibility study.
And MLY is down, down to the $4.50 level again today, when all of my metals stocks are strong. Eric?
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