"Pensana Rare Earths is pleased to announce that the Sovereign Trust of Angola agreed today (Monday) to make a new capital investment in the company of approximately 8.6 million dollars," reads a statement posted this Monday on the Australian company's website.
"The investment will be used to advance the Longonjo project, the first mine of rare precious metals to be explored in over a decade," the text adds.
Through the subscription of more of the company's shares, at the beginning of October, on the London Stock Exchange, the participation of the Sovereign Fund of Angola in the project rises from 17.7 percent to 23.1 percent, 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 the continued rapid development of the project as the first rare precious metal mine to be developed in over a decade, in a context of strong demand for electric vehicles and wind turbines off the coast," commented Pensana's president, Paul Atherley, quoted in the statement.
In April of last year, it was reported that a two-year mineral exploration project in the municipality of Longonjo, Huambo province, identified 23 billion tons of valuable metals known as Rare Lands.
Among the most outstanding characteristics 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 metallic alloys, such as iPhone cell phones, hybrid cars, lasers, among others.
The consumption of these minerals, worldwide, reaches 150 thousand tons/year.
The types of metals known as Rare Lands reach 17. However, six types are better known: neodymium, lanthanum, praseodymium, gadolinium, samarium and cerium.
China is the main producer and market of the ore.
