Magnet metals company Pensana is at an advanced stage in its financing of both the Saltend rare earth separation facility, in the UK, and the Longonjo mine, in Angola, the company said on April 3.  

The total capital requirement for both projects is $550-million. 

Both projects are fully permitted, with front-end engineering design studies having been completed and early works programmes well under way at each site, led by experienced project delivery teams. 

Pensana says it has been engaged with three parties to provide the required funding. First of these is a $175-million bond issue being arranged by ABG Sundal Collier, for which the company has received green bond accreditation from Cicero rating agency.  

Second, a $220-million strategic equity investor is before its investment committee, and, third, a $150-million debt package is being arranged by a South African bank. 

The funds are required to be put in place between now and the end of the calendar year to meet the proposed construction and commissioning schedule, with first production targeted in 2025. 

Pensana says it has established a direct relationship with key Japanese magnet manufacturers and has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 25% of Saltend’s yearly production.  

The company says it is in ongoing discussions with Japanese trading houses with direct access to the Japanese automotive sector. 

Terms have been agreed with a major European wind turbine original-equipment manufacturer (OEM), which means that the company has been shortlisted to supply major US and European automotive OEMs.  

Offtake discussions with several automotive component manufacturers in the US and Europe are under way, Pensana saya. 

The company is also working with its customers to establish an independent and sustainable supply chain to ensure a cost-effective, transparent and ultra-low embedded carbon range of rare earth products. 

“At a time when there is growing public concern about the provenance of rare earth extraction and the resilience of supply chains in general, the company’s ability to demonstrate, in particular to consumer-facing automotive OEMs, that it can provide an independently validated sustainable product from the UK is an increasingly attractive point of differentiation,” Pensana says. 

The company says the technical due diligence undertaken by independent third parties on behalf of the financing parties has highlighted that the state-of-the-art Longonjo mine is one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped rare earth mines in the world.    

The near-surface, deeply weathered orebody has an average depth of 35 m, with a mine grade of 3.72% total rare-earth oxides (TREO) and neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) grade of 0.78%.  

Over the first five years, the project is expected to produce about 46 000 t/y of mixed rare earth sulphate for export to Saltend. 

The Longonjo mine is linked to the Atlantic port of Lobito by the Benguela rail line, which in a recent joint announcement by the governments of Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo has been designated as the Lobito Trade Corridor and concessioned to Portuguese infrastructure group Mota-Engil for a $450-million upgrade. 

Exploration results from the Sulima West target on the Coola exploration licence, located 40 km north of Longonjo reported rare earth grades of up to 9.7% TREO averaging 3.4% TREO over 68 m in surface trenches, highlighting the potential to extend the 20-year mine life at Longonjo. 

Saltend will initially produce about 12 500 t/y of TREO, including 4 500 t/y of NdPr oxide, making it one of the top three producers globally outside China, and has capacity for expansion to meet the growing demand for magnet metal rare earths from electric vehicles and offshore wind. 

Located in the Saltend Chemical Park, in the Humber Freeport, Saltend will be the first rare earth processing hub in the world, according to Pensana, capable of processing third-party feedstock imported from around the world.  

Discussions are under way with potential third-party feedstock suppliers for access to uncommitted processing capacity at Saltend, Pensana says. 

The company has partnered with the adjacent Yorkshire Energy Park for a private wire connection to offshore wind battery storage, under which it will have access to 4 MW, rising to 10 MW of low-carbon electricity for ten years.  

Together with Longonjo’s ten-year low-cost supply of hydroelectric power, Pensana says it is able to supply ultralow embedded carbon products from mine to customer. 

As an example, Pensana cites its partnership with Polestar to create the first truly climate-neutral car by 2030. The scope of the Polestar 0 project is to identify and eliminate all greenhouse-gas emissions from the extraction of raw materials to when the car is delivered to the customer and onwards to the end of vehicle life. 

In addition, Pensana has entered into a ten-year contract for electricity at the price of about $0.20/kWh to power the Longonjo mine supplied from the hydroelectrical power grid. 

For Saltend, the UK government’s Business Industry supercharger programme will exempt firms from certain costs arising from renewable energy obligations, such as the feed-in tariff, contracts for difference and the renewables obligation, as well as GB Capacity Market costs, in addition to lower network charges providing power at a competitive rate to other major global economies. 

This future low-cost supply of low-carbon electricity may power the Saltend separation facility expansion plans including the conversion of NdPr oxide into magnet metal. 

“This use of offshore wind to produce ultra-low carbon magnet metal will be a significant step to further decarbonise the rare earth supply chain,” Pensana says. 

Pensana and Equinor are studying the use of low-carbon hydrogen produced from Equinor’s flagship 600 MW low-carbon hydrogen production plant with carbon capture, hydrogen to Humber (H2H) at Saltend, to recycle the 7 t of rare earth permanent magnets in the nacelles of wind turbines currently being installed in the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank Wind Farm.