Molycorp, Inc. announced that it has been granted authorization from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to commence exploratory drilling at an occurrence of heavy rare earths located near its flagship rare earth manufacturing facility at Mountain Pass, California.
 
"This is an important milestone in our heavy rare earth strategy, and we expect to begin drilling immediately,” said Mark A. Smith, Molycorp's President and Chief Executive Officer. “We anticipate results from the drilling program in the second quarter of 2012. I’d also like to compliment the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Department of Interior for their thorough and efficient review of our drilling Notice."
 
Preliminary exploration at the site has shown rare earth mineralization with an average ore grade of approximately four percent and a relatively high percentage of heavy rare earths, such as terbium, dysprosium, europium and samarium, as well as relatively high percentages of yttrium, neodymium, and praseodymium.