Microsoft invests in Ontario-based rare earths recycling company
Cyclic has developed a patent-pending technology called CC360 to address the challenge of recovering rare earths contained in end-of-life hard drives.
Pensana Rare Earths said on Monday that Angola’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to invest about $8.6 million in the company which will be used to develop the Longonjo project into a major rare earth mine.
The Fundo Soberano de Angola will subscribe for 13.5 million shares in the company, raising the fund’s stake to 23.1% from 17.7%.
Rare earths are a group of minerals, which includes neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, used in a range of products from iPhones to wind turbines.
Production of these crucial minerals is at present dominated by China, aside from a few exceptions like a Malaysian plant operated by Australia’s Lynas Corp.
The Angola-based Longonjo project is slated to be the “world’s first major rare earth mine to be brought online in over a decade”, the company said, after upgrading the mine’s NdPr oxide estimate by 35% only last week.
(By Soumyajit Saha; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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