I recently stumbled upon an article on the website of the Brookings Institution, which is an American think-tank. The title of this article is, “Could Africa Replace China as the world’s source of rare earth mineral elements?” This title gives away its content. Currently, the production of these rare earth minerals have remained concentrated in China, which is a big concern for the West and its allies. China controls 60% of global production of rare earth minerals and 85% of the processing capacity that gives China an upper hand in the global market.
For the reader who doesn’t know what rare minerals are, can understand them from the point of view of what they are used for. Rare earth elements are a group of 17 critical metals used in electronics (computers, televisions and smartphones), in renewable energy technologies (wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle batteries), and in the defence sectors (jet engines, missile guidance and defence systems, satellites, especially in GPS equipment). In this respect, whoever controls the production and processing of these minerals, will also control critical future technologies. This is why the West does not seem happy with China’s monopoly over these minerals, which they perceive as the biggest geopolitical threat to Western market monopoly.
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.
