Australian mining company Pensana Rare Earths announced on Monday that the Angolan Sovereign Base Fund would invest a further US$8.6 million in the precious metal research project in Longonjo, Huambo province.
Through the subscription of more of the company’s shares, at the beginning of October, on the London Stock Exchange, the Sovereign Fund of Angola’s stake in the project has risen from 17.7% to 23.1% and follows the investments already made in March and June this year.
“We are very pleased to receive this support from the Sovereign Fund, which will ensure that the project continues to develop rapidly as the first mine for exploration of rare precious metals to be developed in over a decade, in a context of strong demand for electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines,” the chairman of Pensana, Paul Atherley, said.
In April last year it was reported that a mineral prospecting project in Longonjo municipality, in Angola’s Huambo province, which lasted around two years, found 23 billion tons of valuable metals, known as Rare Lands.
Among the most prominent features of this type of metal are the conduction of heat and electricity, as well as structures that are highly magnetizable.
Their chemical and physical properties are used in a wide variety of technological applications and are incorporated in superconductors, magnets, catalysts, among others.
They are ores that guarantee unique characteristics to several types of alloys, such as mobile phones, hybrid cars, lasers, among others.
The consumption of these minerals, worldwide, is 150,000 tons/year.
There are 17 types of rare earths but six are better known: neodymium, lanthanum, praseodymium, gadolinium, samarium and cerium.
China is the main producer and market for the ore.
