Project Phoenix

Mountain Pass, California

To capitalize on the increased demand of rare earth elements due to China’s export restriction of these products, Molycorp expanded and modernized its Mountain Pass Mine. The mine was the only operating rare earth mining and processing facility in the United States when the project completed.

Kiewit subsidiary, TIC, installed the crusher, paste tails plant, mill and complex piperack that tied the facilities together. Major areas of work involved the primary, secondary and tertiary crushing; stockpiling; conveying; storage; grinding; flotation; filtering and press tails circuit systems. Equipment installation included a 250-horsepower jaw crusher, two 300-horsepower cone crushers, a 12.5-foot by 26-foot ball mill, 22 flotation cells, multiple agitators, 90 pumps, 80 tanks/vessels and three 90-ton filters.

TIC also installed the water treatment system and pre-engineered metal building to support the new ore processing facility. The scope included all associated process piping and valves, along with electrical and mechanical tie-ins.