London-listed Pensana Rare Earths has released its Blueprint for Sustainable Rare Earths, setting out the company’s aim to produce the lowest embedded carbon products in the rare earth industry, as well as a “deep and meaningful” carbon reduction with the aim to achieve net zero across the value chain by no later than 2040.

The blueprint release follows Pensana’s announcement earlier this month that it will partner with Polestar on its goal of creating the first truly climate-neutral car by 2030.

Pensana posits that its actions will allow the business to place itself among the leading companies addressing climate change issues.

“The Pensana Blueprint for Sustainable Rare Earths is an important document as it clearly sets out our commitment to all stakeholders and, importantly, to our customers that we put the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards at the heart of our operations.

“Sustainability is always going to be a work in progress; however, I am most grateful to the ESG Committee for its leadership on this blueprint, which provides a clear pathway to embedding ESG into every decision, at every stage and using independent experts to monitor our progress,” comments chairperson Paul Atherley.

Pensana says the electrification of motive power is forecast to become the biggest energy transition in history.

It highlights that two of the biggest components of this transition are the phasing out of internal combustion engines in favour of electric vehicles and the rapid growth of offshore wind power, both of which are heavily dependent on powerful rare earth permanent magnets.

Pensana outlines that, currently, China supplies over 90% of these magnets, with the country indicating that it would need all of its own production for the $11-trillion 2060 carbon-neutral plan.

It notes another concern for European and US original-equipment manufacturers as being that the current supply from China may not meet its ESG standards.

Pensana is commissioning its Longonjo rare earths mine, in Angola, and its Saltend refinery, in the UK.

Therefore, the company posits that by establishing an independent and sustainable supply chain to the highest international standards, it provides customers with the assurances they need in terms of ESG transparency and supply chain resilience.