Paul Atherley
CHAIRPERSON: Pensana
‘We are now on the cusp of one of the first major rare earth mines in over a decade’
LAST year was a reality check for Pensana’s rare earths ambitions. It shelved a $250m downstream facility at Saltend in the UK in order to focus on its 84%-owned Longonjo mine in Angola. The mine is scoped to produce 20,000 tons of rare earth carbonate annually, a precursor for neodymium and praseodymium oxide used in magnets for wind turbines. According to Atherley, the company endured “a protracted lender review” amid “a challenging macroeconomic backdrop”. China’s subdued economic recovery affected all mining companies, but for Pensana it has meant a further wait before financing the $217m mine.
Pensana is relying on a $15m loan from Angola’s sovereign wealth fund FSDEA ahead of a total $80m investment. Once received, the mine’s equity finance and additional debt facility will be unlocked, says Atherley. In the meantime, he sold 1.5 million of his own shares in Pensana, raising £250,000 for working capital. Non-executive director fees were also cut following the resignations of Baroness (Lindsay) Northover and Jeremy Beeton from the board. Atherley is heartened by increased investment in Angola, notably from Rio Tinto and Anglo American as well as the $550m Lobito Corridor development, which will improve logistics.
For now, however, mine development is restricted to minor infrastructural work. In September, a non-binding offtake agreement was signed with Japan’s Hanwa. The company also secured a $3.4m technical assistance grant from the US International Development Finance Corp. Atherley is keeping the faith. His firm is “on the cusp” of the first major rare earth mines in over a decade, he insists.
LIFE OF PAUL
A mining engineer with a degree from Imperial College, London, Atherley was an executive director at HSBC before establishing grassroots knowledge of Chinese business as chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, a role he held for a year from 2014 to 2015. After that he worked at Berkeley Energia, an Australian-listed firm working on clean energy resources at a prospect in Spain. He joined Pensana as chair in May 2018. Tim George, a former Anglo American executive and former CEO of Xceldiam, was appointed Pensana CEO in 2019.
