Angola, the seventh-largest country in Africa, is most well-known for being one of the region’s biggest oil exporters. The commodity provides around half of the country’s fiscal revenues, yet it is not oil that is piquing renewed international interest in the country of late but rather its largely untapped mineral wealth.
The Southern African country already has a thriving diamond mining sector – accounting for around 8% of global production – yet approximately 60% of its territory is thought to be unexplored for metals and minerals.
Notable recent investments in Angola include Pensana’s Longonjo rare earths project and Canadian miner Ivanhoe securing exploration rights over a vast area of the country.
The Longonjo rare earths deposit is located adjacent to the Lobito rail Corridor, which is set to provide a quicker western route to market for metal and minerals. The operation, which has an upfront capital cost of $217m (Kz182.21bn), will extract, concentrate, calcine and chemically refine the free dig material to produce a high-value mixed rare earth carbonate that contains 50% total rare earth oxide, of which 24% is neodymium and praseodymium. The commodity will then be railed 273km to the Atlantic port of Lobito for export.
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.
