Stockholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Stockholders' Equity

Stockholders’ Equity

At December 31, 2012 and 2011, the Company had 138,773,538 and 83,896,043 shares of common stock outstanding, respectively, and 2,070,000 shares of 5.50% Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock (“Convertible Preferred Stock”) outstanding.

During the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company completed an acquisition of exploration rights for total consideration of $16.2 million, which was paid for by the issuance of 788,410 shares of common stock at $10.147 per share and a cash payment of $8.2 million.

Concurrently with the issuance of the 6.00% Convertible Notes discussed in Note 14, the Company issued a total of 13,800,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $10.00 per share (the “Primary Shares”) in a separate underwritten public offering. The underwriters received a 6.00% fee in the form of an underwriter's discount for the Primary Shares plus a $1.5 million flat fee to the representative of the underwriters of the Primary Shares. Certain officers, directors and other related parties of the Company participated in offering of the Primary Shares by purchasing 7,090,000 of the total Primary Shares issued, but no underwriting fees were charged to the Company for the purchase by the insiders.

At the same time of the issuance of the 6.00% Convertible Notes and the Primary Shares, and as further discussed in Note 14, the Company entered into a share lending agreement with MSCS, pursuant to which it has agreed to loan to MSCS 13,800,000 shares of common stock. The Company received no proceeds from the Borrowed Shares, but only a nominal lending fee from MSCS for the use of these loaned shares. The Borrowed Shares are issued and outstanding for corporate law purposes. However, based on certain contractual undertakings of MSCS in the share lending agreement that have the effect of substantially eliminating the economic dilution that otherwise would result from the issuance of the Borrowed Shares, the Borrowed Shares will not be considered outstanding for the purpose of computing and reporting Molycorp's earnings per share.

As a result of the conversion of the Debentures, as further discussed in Note 14, a portion of the Debentures tendered was converted into 99,723 shares of Molycorp common stock.

In connection with of the acquisition of Molycorp Canada on June 11, 2012, Molycorp and MCP Exchangeco Inc. issued an aggregate of 13,545,426 shares of common stock and 507,203 Exchangeable Shares, the latter without par value, in consideration for that portion of the purchase price Molycorp paid to Molycorp Canada’s former shareholders who elected to receive shares of Molycorp common stock in addition to or in lieu of cash on the acquisition date. The $284.1 million fair value recorded in additional paid-in capital related to the issuance of acquisition consideration was based on the closing price of the Company’s common stock on June 11, 2012. As of December 31, 2012, 340,196 shares of the Exchangeable Shares had been converted into shares of Molycorp common stock.

On March 8, 2012, Molymet, the world’s largest processor of molybdenum and rhenium, headquartered in Santiago, Chile, purchased 12,500,000 shares of the Company’s common stock for $390.1 million, net of stock issuance costs of $0.1 million, at a purchase price of $31.218 per share, which price was determined based on the average daily volume weighted average price of the Company’s common stock on The New York Stock Exchange for the 20 consecutive trading days immediately preceding the date of the agreement, plus a 10% premium. Pursuant to this investment, Molymet acquired the right to nominate a member of the Company’s Board of Directors for so long as Molymet owns a certain percentage of the Company’s common stock.

On February 16, 2011, Molycorp completed a public offering of its 5.50% Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock (“Convertible Preferred Stock”), $0.001 par value per share. In connection with this offering, the Company issued 1,800,000 shares of Convertible Preferred Stock for $100.00 per share. In addition, Molycorp granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 270,000 additional shares of Convertible Preferred Stock to cover over-allotments. The underwriters exercised their option to purchase the additional shares of Convertible Preferred Stock on March 16, 2011. Each share of the Convertible Preferred Stock will automatically convert on March 1, 2014 into between 1.6667 and 2.0000 shares of Molycorp’s common stock, subject to anti-dilution adjustments. At any time prior to March 1, 2014, holders may elect to convert each share of the Convertible Preferred Stock into shares of common stock at the minimum conversion rate of 1.6667 shares of common stock per share of Convertible Preferred Stock, subject to anti-dilution adjustments. Dividends on the Convertible Preferred Stock are payable on a cumulative basis when, as and if declared by the Board or an authorized committee of such Board, at an annual rate of 5.50% on the liquidation preference of $100.00 per share. The Company may pay declared dividends in cash, common stock or any combination of cash and common stock, subject to certain limitations, on March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1 of each year, starting on June 1, 2011 and to, and including, March 1, 2014. The Convertible Preferred Stock is not redeemable. Molycorp received net proceeds from the Convertible Preferred Stock offering totaling $199.6 million after underwriter discounts and commissions and offering expenses paid by Molycorp. In February, May, August and November 2012, the Company declared a cash dividend of $1.375 per share on the Convertible Preferred Stock, respectively. The Company paid a total of $11.4 million and $9.0 million cash dividends in 2012 and 2011, respectively.