Tim George, the CEO of London-listed Pensana, says the company is delighted to have moved into the construction phase at both its Longonjo rare earths mining project, in Angola, and its Saltend processing hub, in the UK.

"We now have a multidisciplinary team of over 120 engineers working across both projects," he points out.

The Saltend facility is being designed to produce about 12 500 t/y of rare earth products – of which 4 500 t/y will be neodymium and praseodymium oxide – from high-purity mixed rare earth sulphate produced at the Longonjo mine, in Angola.

"Our project delivery teams, led by Hamish Westwater for Saltend and Kevin Botha for Longonjo, are working closely with our main contractors on the long-lead items and the other preparatory work ahead of the main construction.

"Both projects are fully permitted, operationally robust with fit-for-purpose technical solutions for both Angola and the UK. The value engineering exercise we undertook early this year has given us confidence that we can maintain the overall project timeline and budget in an environment of significant inflationary pressure," says George.

At Longonjo, orders have been placed for the fabrication and delivery of various long-lead items, including a tailings storage facility; power supply and substation; an acid plant; a calciner and dryers; a floatation plant; reagents handling; a comminution circuit; thickeners; earthworks and civils; filters and nanofiltration; and potable water supply.

Further, fabrication of the construction camp and associated infrastructure upgrades to the existing exploration camp are under way.

At Saltend, engineering firm Wood has taken on the role of principal designer and principal contractor.

The firm has finalised the process design and optimised the site layout plan.

The long-lead item packages being executived for Saltend include FRP settlers; agitators; FRP tanks; bagging units; and scrubbers.

Wood has also mobilised its early construction management team and appointed the early enabling works contracts for site preparation, pioneering facilities, security and the third-party works by Yorkshire Water.

Over-the-fence service packages being supplied by px Engineering, which include tie-ins to power, water, steam, compressed air and effluent, are also under way.