Angolan rare earth company inks five-year deal for offtake from its Longonjo mine 

Major Japanese trading group, Hanwa Co, has signed a non-binding MOU with Pensana for up to 20,000tpy of ultra-clean Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate for five years.  Hanwa sees this agreement as the first action on a path to ensure long-term supply to their customers of sustainable magnet metal products with the highest ESG credentials.   

Pensana owns and is developing the Longonjo mine, which has a JORC reserve of over 100,000t of NdPr. Longonjo is located near Huambo in Angola, on the Lobito rail corridor, a key development in Angola. Construction camps are already in place at the fully permitted mine which has an upfront capital cost of US$217M.  Pensana has been awarded a Gold Medal by EcoVadis, a leading sustainability ratings provider, placing it in the top 5% of companies assessed. The ratings are widely used by automotive and offshore wind OEMs to monitor the ESG credentials of potential suppliers and involve a detailed assessment of operations. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Hanwa and Pensana will co-operate on marketing and distribution globally, developing a strategic magnet metal supply chain. This includes consideration of deeper co-operation by Hanwa including investment in upstream and downstream projects, such as other RE deposits in Angola, Coola and Sulima West, as well as separation facilities and the metallisation project. Hanwa will also consider supporting joint study opportunities from Governments and financial institutions for various Pensana projects. 

Hanwa is a Japanese-based trading company with sales last year reported at Yen 2,400Bn (US$16.9Bn) and has a long history of trading metals and chemicals globally, working with producers. The team has been intensively expanding its critical minerals portfolio for EV batteries and the energy transition including cathodes, graphite (synthetic and natural), silicon, & Aland black mass, recycled products as well as rare earths.