Name of the Project
Longonjo rare earths mine/refinery project.

Location
Longonjo municipality, Huambo province, Angola. The project is close to the Lobito Corridor rail line, which provides access to the Atlantic Port of Lobito.

Project Owner/s
Rare earth mining and processing company Pensana holds an 84% interest in Longonjo through its 84% holding in Angola-registered company Ozango Minerais, which owns 100% of the mining licence.

The Angolan government holds a 10% interest and the company's Angolan partners the remaining 6%.

Project Description
Pensana has delineated a near-surface Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant Stage 1 ore reserve of 22-million tonnes grading 3.04% total rare-earth oxides containing 139 457 t of neodymium/praseodymium oxide and 3 689 t of dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide.

The reserve supports a mine life of more than 20 years, based on near-surface resources.

The company has launched a resource-expansion drilling programme.

The mine execution plan is based on staged development of the mine and processing facilities. The Stage 1 design basis is 850 000 t/y run-of-mine throughput. The operation will mine near-surface, predominantly free-dig carbonatite material through an openpit operation and extract, concentrate, calcine and chemically refine the material to produce a high-value mixed rare-earth carbonate (MREC).

Initial production is planned at 20 000 t/y of mixed rare-earth carbonate (MREC), containing light and heavy rare earths, including 2 400 t/y of neodymium/praseodymium (NdPr) and 73 t/y of dysprosium/terbium (DyTb). Expansion to 40 000 t/y of MREC is planned in Year 4 containing 4 200 t/y NdPr and 122 t/y DyTb.

The project under development comprises an openpit, concentrator and recovery plants, a tailings storage facility, process water supply, bulk power supply, mine infrastructure, workshops, offices, an accommodation village, recreational facilities and associated infrastructure. MREC product will be railed about 273 km to the Port of Lobito for export.

Pensana is separately optimising the process design of its previously engineered Saltend separation facility into modular processing trains, with the aim of deploying the engineering and intellectual property in the most operationally and commercially suitable location. The optimised downstream design is expected to include heavy rare-earth separation and metal conversion capability, with the objective of supplying magnet manufacturers directly.

Potential Job Creation
The project is expected to create 600 high-value jobs, of which more than 50% are expected to be allocated to young people.

Once in full production, the project will create an estimated 2 400 direct and indirect jobs.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Pensana reports a net present value of $2.3-billion and payback of under two years at current prices.

Capital Expenditure
Phase 1 capital expenditure is estimated at $250-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Main construction started in May 2025. Commissioning is now planned for January 2028 and full production for September 2028, conditional on equity deployment and binding offtake agreements, and debt approvals by February 2027.

Latest Developments
On October 26, 2026, Pensana reported 30% overall construction progress and more than 60% of procurement committed. The company has described Longonjo as fully permitted and engineered, with activity slowed while equity financing is being concluded.

Proposed Ozango equity financing is $75-million to $90-million. Cascade has invested $15-million of its $165-million commitment and expects a significant tranche within 14 days of the announcement; receipt is not confirmed.

Pensana is advancing Japanese offtake discussions to support proposed Absa/US EXIM debt facilities. Agreements could cover most or all initial output; US discussions focus mainly on Stage 2. A hydropower purchase agreement has been signed for supply from Laúca dam.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Clark Solutions (sulphuric acid plant); NCP (ball mill); Ingetecsa (flash dryer and mixer); Drytech (calciner); Pro-Process Engineering and Lycopodium (detailed engineering); Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis consortium (Lobito Corridor rail concession); Toyota Tsusho, ReElement Technologies and VAC/eVAC Magnetics (offtake and downstream/mine-to-magnet partners); Cascade Natural Resources (strategic investment); Absa (proposed debt financing); US EXIM (guarantee support); and FSDEA (construction finance partner).

Contact Details for Project Information
Pensana, email admin@pensana.co.uk or email IR@pensana.co.uk.