London-based Pensana (LSE: PRE) is being backed by one of the United Kingdom’s largest asset managers and the Angolan sovereign wealth fund to build a rare earths refinery in England and a mine in the African country.
M&G Investment Management, which has £342 billion under management, and the roughly $3 billion Angolan fund (FSDEA) are investing a further $10 million to increase their respective stakes in Pensana to 13% and 23%, the company said in a news release on Friday.
Pensana has started to build a $195 million plant at Saltend in the port of Hull in northeast England that would be fed with ore from a $305 million mine in the southwest African country more widely known for diamonds and oil than rare earths. The refinery would be one of only a handful of its kind outside China if it starts as planned in 2026.
Pensana plc (LON:PRE) explores and mines neodymium, praseodymium, and rare earth minerals. The Company’s flagship assets are the Saltend rare earth refinery project in the United Kingdom and Longonjo neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) Project in Angola.
