It has been reported that rare earth exploration and development company Pensana has abandoned plans to build a rare earth oxide separation facility at Saltend near Hull in the Humber Freeport.
The project, which was set to cost £250 million, was originally expected to provide 450 jobs during construction and 150 during operation.
Its aim was to establish an independent and sustainable rare earth supply chain and process in the midstream to produce magnetic metals in the UK for use in products such as electric vehicles and wind turbines.
The factory was to process neodymium and praseodymium from a mine in Longonjo, Angola.
Sky News today (October 16) quoted Pensana's chairman Paul Atherley as saying that the company decided to withdraw from Saltend after the US government promised to buy rare earth elements from the Mountain Pass mine in the US at guaranteed prices, while no European government had done so.
Atherley said: "This has re-priced the market - Washington wants to do more of these deals and is doing it at an incredible pace."
"Europe and the UK have been talking about critical minerals for a long time. But when the Americans do it, they do it with gusto and really follow through. We don't; we mostly just talk about it."
He warned that the rare earth processing process is complex, energy-intensive and expensive, and is currently not feasible in the UK.
The Saltend plant was set to receive millions of pounds in UK government funding and was supposed to be a key part of the UK's critical minerals strategy.
Currently, China produces approximately 90% of all finished rare earth metals - these elements are crucial for the production of many technologies, energy and military-related products.
Pensana was seen as the UK's response to concerns over the availability of rare earth supplies. The government chose the Saltend Chemicals Park in 2022 to launch its critical minerals strategy.
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