TIDMPRE
Pensana PLC
18 August 2022
18 August 2022
Pensana Plc
("Pensana" or the "Company")
Building an independent and sustainable supply of magnet metal
rare earths
for the Electric Vehicle and Offshore Wind OEMs
Seven years ago, the BBC reported from Inner Mongolia, China, on
a "nightmarish lake" filled with a black toxic sludge created by
the thirst for rare earths for wind turbines and electric car
motors.
Since then, the Chinese Government has made significant strides
towards cleaning up the state-controlled industry, closing smaller
mines and merging the country's main producers to create the China
Rare Earth Group, bringing approximately 30% of the world's rare
earths production under tighter regulatory control.
However, following a six-month investigation, investigative
advocacy group Global Witness has recently reported that China has
effectively outsourced production to neighbouring Myanmar, with
reports of up to 16,000 miners crossing the border.
According to Global Witness, the semi-autonomous territory is
run by militias and employs the same highly toxic practice of
in-situ leaching that China has been looking to eliminate
domestically, with a devastating impact on local ecosystems,
livelihoods, and access to safe drinking water.
There is also a growing international concern over the
resilience of the magnet metal supply chain, with its dependence on
a single country.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently commented: "Our
concern is that critical minerals could be as subject or vulnerable
to manipulation as we've seen in other areas, or weaponization. I
think it's healthy and from a national security perspective for
both of our nations to diversify supply chains and make sure that
these minerals are available to get to the ultimate goal of net
zero."
At the same time China is reportedly spending over US$11
trillion on its 2060 carbon neutral plan and according to Lin
Boqianq, Director of the China Centre for Energy Economics, "China
feels no obligation to be the rare earth supplier to the
world."
Meanwhile the demand for magnet metal rare earths continues to
grow with Adamas Intelligence forecasting an 8.3% compound annual
growth rate to 2035 and warning that "The rapid demand growth of
the 2020s will soon be dwarfed by the demand growth of the
2030s."
UK company Pensana Plc is looking to address these problems by
establishing the world's first rare earth processing hub in the UK,
providing electric vehicle and wind turbine OEMs with an
independent and sustainable supply of rare earths.
The UK's Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng recently launched the
UK's Critical Minerals Strategy during his attendance at the ground
breaking ceremony for Pensana's Saltend Rare Earth processing hub
in the Humber Freeport.
Kwasi Kwarteng commented: "Pensana breaking ground today has
been possible in part through government support and shows how our
plans to secure an internationally competitive electric supply
chain in the UK continues to gain momentum. This incredible
facility will be the only one of its kind in Europe and will help
secure the resilience of Britain's supplies into the future."
Located in the Saltend Chemicals Park the facility has been
designed to import high value rare earths from the Pensana's
state-of-the-art Longonjo mine in Angola, and from other
sustainable sources around the world, and separate them into rare
earth oxides.
UK engineering consultancy Wood group and a world class team of
specialty rare earth experts from Perth, Johannesburg and the UK
have designed the facility to produce 12,500 tonnes of rare earth
oxides annually of which 4,500 tonnes will be neodymium
praseodymium oxide.
With operations planned to commence in 2024, the US$195 million
facility will produce circa 5% of the world's magnet metal rare
earths, creating over 500 jobs during construction and 125
high-value permanent jobs.
Cicero, a leading reviewer of Green Bonds has concluded that
Pensana's plans are in line with Green Bond principles, with a
Light Green rating and governance score of Good.
It notes that Pensana has engaged an independent NGO to
undertake an environment and social impact assessment including
human rights associated with mining, with key measures including
following the newly established Global Industry Standard on
Tailings Management.
Rather than selling a concentrate to China, as many mining
companies in Africa still do, Pensana will carry out as much
processing as possible in Angola, using state-of-the-art
processing, including innovative chemical recycling - thereby
creating large numbers of local jobs and importantly ensuring that
Angola has a fair fiscal take.
At Saltend Pensana is looking to convert NdPr oxides into
ultra-low carbon magnet metal, powered by a 200MW battery operated
by Yorkshire Energy Park. At Longonjo, Pensana has entered into a
ten year contract for hydroelectric power at US$2c a KWH.
Cicero notes that it appears likely that Pensana will produce
NdPr oxides with a lower carbon footprint than the NdPr oxides
currently dominating the market.
A feature of Longonjo is the way it has been designed to handle
the NORM (normally occurring radionuclides) in the phosphate ores.
Existing producers concentrate the NORM along with the rare earths
and export them to separation facilities in Malaysia and China.
By contrast, at Longonjo Pensana will extract the rare earths
from the processed ore with the waste material containing the NORM
stored safely in a permanent tailings storage facility at site.
Pensana is receiving strong interest from automotive and wind
turbine OEMs, who are looking to secure transparent and independent
supply with low embedded carbon.
Whilst Pensana's magnet metal oxide production is an important
step it still leaves the final step of magnet production with
others. China dominates magnet production but there are signs that
this will change with a number of companies planning to establish
magnet manufacturing in Europe and North America.
British automotive and aerospace components business GKN Limited
has recently announced its intention to produce permanent magnets
in Europe and North America.
Diego Laurent, Chief Executive Officer at GKN Powder Metallurgy,
commented: "Automakers are looking for a reliable, local supply. We
aim to have in place the capacity for up to 4,000 tonnes of
permanent magnets by 2024, which will see us become a key player in
driving the future of the electric mobility market.
Underpinning the move into the permanent magnets for EV market
is GKN PM's business-wide commitment to sustainability. With
ambitious environmental targets in place, including achieving net
zero greenhouse gas emissions in all operations worldwide by 2050,
the company is contributing to a more responsible and sustainable
future for all."
Looking to the future, Pensana has commenced studies with
Equinor to use its blue hydrogen produced at the Hydrogen to Humber
(H2H) project at Saltend to recycle end-of-life magnets in offshore
wind turbines to create a circular economy for permanent magnets in
the UK.
Chairman Paul Atherley commented:
"We are pleased that we are helping the UK lead the way in
establishing an independent magnet metal supply chain at a time
when sustainability and supply chain resilience are near the top of
everyone's agenda.
Our aim is to supply customers with an ultra-low carbon magnet
metal, powered by offshore wind at Saltend, with feedstock
sustainably sourced from Longonjo powered by hydroelectricity."
-S-
For further information, please contact:
Shareholder/analyst enquiries:
Pensana Plc
Paul Atherley, Chairman IR@pensana.co.uk
Tim George, Chief Executive Officer
Rob Kaplan, Chief Financial Officer
George Zacharias, Group Company Secretary
Media enquiries:
FGS Global:
Gordon Simpson / Richard Crowley Pensana-LON@fgsglobal.com
About Pensana Plc
The electrification of motive power is by far the most important
part of the energy transition and one of the biggest energy
transitions in history. Magnet metal rare earths are central to the
transition away from internal combustion engines and critical to
electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines.
Pensana plans to establish Saltend as an independent and
sustainable processing hub supplying the key magnet metal oxides to
a market which is currently dominated by China. The US$195 million
Saltend facility is being designed to produce 12,500 tonnes per
annum of rare earth oxides, of which 4,500 - 5,000 tonnes will be
neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), representing over 5% of the
world market in 2025.
Pensana's plug and play facility is located within the world
class Saltend Chemicals Park, a cluster of leading chemicals and
renewable energy businesses in the Humber Freeport and will create
over 500 jobs during construction and over 125 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.
Pensana is aiming to establish Saltend as an attractive
alternative for mining companies 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.
www.pensana.co.uk
This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press
release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock
Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
Reach is a non-regulatory news service. By using this service an
issuer is confirming that the information contained within this
announcement is of a non-regulatory nature. Reach announcements are
identified with an orange label and the word "Reach" in the source
column of the News Explorer pages of London Stock Exchange's
website so that they are distinguished from the RNS UK regulatory
service. Other vendors subscribing for Reach press releases may use
a different method to distinguish Reach announcements from UK
regulatory news.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
NRAPPMFTMTBBMFT
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 18, 2022 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)
Pensana (LSE:PRE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
Pensana (LSE:PRE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024