Pensana PLC on Wednesday said it has been finalising specifications across each of its operations in order to keep to its planned construction and execution schedule for the year.

The London-based rare earth metal mining company said it had taken occupation of the Reedmere site at its Saltend rare earth processing hub in the Humber Freeport, England.

Wood Group is the principal designer and contractor for the site. The engineering company has finalised the process design, and increased its multi-discipline engineering team to 65 people, allowing for the implementation of long-lead time packages like bagging units and scrubbers.

Similarly, Pensana said orders have been placed at the Longonjo project in Angola for the fabrication and delivery of other long-lead time items, including a power supply and substation, an acid plant, and comminution circuit.

The fabrication of the construction camp is underway.

Pensana added that recruitment of key operational personnel for both Saltend and Longonjo is ongoing.

It said it was working with local agencies to ensure that ‘key operators’ are part of the construction process, in order to make the transition to commissioning as seamless as possible.

‘Following the recent ground breaking ceremony we are delighted to have moved out of the study phase and into the construction phase for both projects. We now have a multi-disciplinary team of over 120 engineers working across both projects,’ said Chief Executive Officer Tim George.

‘Both projects are fully permitted, operationally robust with fit-for-purpose technical solutions for both Angola and the UK. The value engineering exercise we undertook early this year has given us confidence that we can maintain the overall project time line and budget in an environment of significant inflationary pressure.’

Pensana shares closed 7.0% higher at 66.60 pence each in London on Wednesday.

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