UK-based mine developer Pensana has scrapped plans for a rare earths refinery near Hull, East Yorkshire, because the company intends to redirect its focus to the US.
Pensana is developing a $325mn rare earths project in Angola comprising an open pit, concentrator and recovery plants, tailings storage facility, and other infrastructure.
The Longonjo project is expected to produce 20,000t /yr of mixed rare earth concentrate (MREC). The company started construction on the Angolan rare earth refinery in the first half of 2025, and will start deliveries in 2027.
Pensana intended to develop downstream separation capacity at Saltend Chemicals Park in the UK. The facility would have produced 12,500 t/yr of rare earth oxide and 4,400 t/yr of NdPr oxide. The company also planned to develop a metallisation plant at Yorkshire Energy Park that would produce 4,000 t/yr of NdPr alloy.
In 2022, the UK government pledged significant support for the Saltend Refinery as part of its critical minerals strategy.
But that investment came out to only £5mn ($6.7mn), according to Pensana chief executive Paul Atherley. Atherley said the project was essentially dormant until earlier this year, when the US government announced a deal with US rare earths producer MP Materials.
The administration of US president Donald Trump pledged support of at least $400mn for MP Materials in July, including a guaranteed offtake agreement and minimum price.
The minimum price is intended to protect the project if prices fall again as a result of low-cost Chinese imports.
The Mountain Pass deal has driven Pensana to reorient to the US, and it is now in discussion with multiple parties, including the US government.
"We are still looking to do downstream refining but we are reorienting to the US because that's where the money is," Atherley told Argus.
Pensana hopes to get a commitment from the US government similar to the Mountain Pass deal, although it has no agreement with the US as of yet.
Atherley said the deal supports the larger ex-China rare earths industry.
"The price established by the public-private partnership between the US government and MP Materials has reset rare earth prices to realistic prices that will make similar projects financeable in the US," Atherley said.
Pensana has already pursued partnerships in the US. In June 2025, Pensana and US rare earth element refiner ReElement Technologies proposed an offtake agreement deal of up to 20,000 t/yr of MREC from Longonjo over a five-year period.
Pensana has also announced that it will list on stock exchange Nasdaq.
The Mountain Pass agreement is part of a larger push on the part of the US government to support domestic and western rare earths production to reduce reliance on China for rare earth supply.
The Chinese government announced further export controls on all medium and heavy rare earth elements on 9 October.
Export controls have lifted prices of controlled rare earths outside China. Argus assessed erbium oxide min 99.5pc at $130-150/kg on 16 October, up by 160pc in a week as the market reacted to the imposition of export controls on the metal.
But ex-China rare earth prices could fall sharply if export controls are loosened, creating significant risk for rare earth projects outside of China.
