BBC Investigative journalist Misha Glenny digs deep into the geopolitical tensions arising from China’s
dominance of magnet metal rare earths and the challenge being thrown down by the UK’s Pensana
and Less Common Metals.
Misha Glenny
March 2020, the early days of lockdown for many of us. Boredom setting in, but nobody knowing how
long it would last. The need for a new hobby, and in the US, one in particular gained popularity. Magnet
fishing. People throwing powerful magnets on lines into seas, rivers and lakes and pulling out some
quite extraordinary things. Warheads from World War One for example, and even a dead shark
attached to a metal hook. And they could only do that thanks to the extraordinary rare earth metal
used in the magnets, neodymium. It’s this that gives the magnets their power. How strong, well, a
magnet weighing half a pound can support metal the weight of a giant panda.
Pensana plc (LON:PRE) explores and mines neodymium, praseodymium, and rare earth minerals. The company is looking to establish the world’s first fully sustainable magnet metal rare earth oxide producer at the Saltend Chemicals Park in the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership Yorkshire, UK.
