Breaking ground at Saltend rare earths hub

24 August 2021

Pensana Plc

("Pensana" or the "Company")

Breaking Ground at the Saltend rare earth processing hub

Pensana, Wood and pxGroup are on site at the Saltend Chemicals Park conducting geotechnical drilling and trenching for the foundations of our rare earth processing hub, ahead of main construction subject to the finalisation of project financing later in the year.

This key milestone marks the start of building the world's first sustainable rare earth separation facility with a target production of circa 12,500 annualised tonnes of rare earth oxides, including 4,500 tonnes of magnet metal rare earth oxides which would represent approximately 5% of 2025 projected world demand.

Pensana's US$125 million plant will be the first major rare earth separation facility to be built in over a decade and the first to be located in a Freeport. It will become an important hub in establishing an independent magnet metal supply chain for the UK and beyond, creating over 100 high value direct jobs and over 500 jobs during construction.

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Chairman Paul Atherley commented: "It has been a little over nine months since the team set foot on the Saltend Chemicals Park and since then rapid progress has been made with site selection, process route development, facility design, planning permission and the commencement of site preparation. FEED is well advanced and expected to be completed in late October with the site preparation complete the following month."

About Pensana

The electrification of motive power is the most important part of the energy transition and one of the biggest energy transitions in history. Magnet metals are central to the transition and critical to high value manufacturing applications such as electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines.

Pensana plans to establish Saltend as an independent, sustainable supplier of the key magnet metal oxides to a market which is currently dominated by China. The US$125 million Saltend facility is being designed to produce circa 12,500 tonnes per annum of rare earth oxides, of which 4,500 tonnes will be neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), representing around 5% of the world market in 2025.

The Saltend facility is located within the world class Saltend Chemicals Park, a cluster of leading chemicals and renewable energy businesses at the heart of the UK's energy estuary, and host to a range of companies including BP Petrochemicals technology, INEOS, Air Products, Triton Power, Nippon Gohsei and Tricoya. 

Pensana's plug and play facility will create over 500 jobs during construction and 100 direct jobs once in production. It will be the first major separation facility to be established in over a decade and will become one of only three major producers located outside China.

Initial feedstock will be shipped as a clean, high purity mixed rare earth sulphate (MRES) from the Company's Longonjo low impact mine in Angola. The open-cast mine, state-of-the-art concentrator and proprietary MRES processing plant are being designed by Wood to the highest international standards. They will be powered by minimal carbon hydro-electric power and connected to the Port of Lobito by the recently upgraded Benguela railway line.

Pensana is of the view that provenance of critical rare earth materials supply, life cycle analysis and GHG Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions will all become significant factors in supply chains for major customers. The Company intends to offer customers an independently and sustainably sourced supply of the metal oxides and carbonates of increasing importance to a range of applications central to the energy transition, industrial, medical, military and communications sectors.

For many miners around the world who are looking to access the European and US supply chains, it is becoming increasingly clear that the planned EU and UK carbon border taxation will mean that it is no longer acceptable for manufacturers to source material extracted or processed unsustainably.

Pensana is aiming to establish Saltend as an attractive alternative to mining houses who may otherwise be limited to selling their products to China, having designed the facility to be easily adapted to cater for a range of rare earth feedstocks.