Pensana Joins U.S. Mining Roundtable as Longonjo Advances Allied Rare Earth Supply

Highlights

• Pensana participated in a high-level Washington roundtable focused on building rare-earth supply chains independent of China.
• The Longonjo project in Angola is under construction targeting 20,000 metric tons per year of mixed rare earth carbonate, with plans to expand to 40,000 tons.
• Pensana is working to increase recovery of strategically critical dysprosium and terbium at Longonjo.
• The project model emphasizes local Angolan employment, beneficiation, and sovereign participation rather than raw ore export.
• Pensana's Washington engagement signals Longonjo is increasingly viewed as a strategic allied supply chain asset.

Pensana Plc (LSE: PRE) participated in a high-level Washington mining roundtable as the United States accelerates efforts to establish rare-earth supply chains independent of China. The engagement reinforces a strategy Rare Earth Exchanges® has viewed favorably: localize value creation where resources occur, then connect those operations to allied downstream markets rather than simply exporting raw ore. In a previous REEx interview, Pensana Chairman Paul Atherley (opens in a new tab) described Longonjo as part of a different model for Africa—combining Angolan employment, local beneficiation, and sovereign participation with access to Western processing and magnet markets.

That localization philosophy matters. Longonjo is under construction in Angola and is designed to produce 20,000 metric tons per year of mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) before a planned expansion to 40,000 tons. Pensana is also working to increase recovery of strategically important dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb).

Paul Atherley

REEx has praised this model because Western supply-chain security should not require Africa to repeat the old extract-and-export relationship. The strongest Western alternative to China may be one in which resource nations participate economically in beneficiation while allied partners provide separation, metallization, and magnet capacity.

Pensana's Washington access does not eliminate financing, construction, or execution risk. But it does suggest that Longonjo is increasingly being viewed through a strategic lens—as it should.

As REEx previously observed, Pensana is moving from plans toward physical execution—exactly what the ex-China rare-earth market now needs.