Rare earth specialist Pensana has joined a UN initiative to support sustainable development goals as it delivers a supply chain linking Africa to the Humber.
The FTSE-listed company has become a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary pursuit to encourage business leaders to implement universal sustainable principles and to take steps to support stated ambitions.
Pensana joins more than 13,000 other businesses committing to uphold the 10 principles which are split across human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Read more: Cargill to buy Croda's performance technologies and industrial chemicals business in £778m deal
This commitment follows Pensana’s decision to become a partner of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure.
The TCFD, chaired by businessman Michael Bloomberg, provides a framework for transparency on how businesses are responding to the climate crisis across the areas of governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets.
Tim George, Pensana’s chief executive, said: “Joining both the United Nations Global Compact and becoming a partner of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure demonstrates our clear intent to develop a world class sustainable supply chain for rare earths. Both the UN Global compact and the TCFD provide externally recognised frameworks to report our progress.”
The company is mining in Angola, having been “first off the rank” as peace returned to the region with a democratically elected government in place since 2017.
Pensana has a 35-year mining licence and is looking to ship the minerals to Saltend, where it is building a £100 million separation plant - a complex chemical engineering facility where 100 jobs are forecast. It closed the year with a £10 million investment from one of the UK’s largest and long-standing fund managers.
Producing key substances for magnet metals used in offshore wind turbines and electric vehicles, it also plans to recycle metals in a further phase.
Make it a new year's resolution to sign up for our free daily newsletter from the region that matters most to you, and follow BusinessLive Humber on Twitter and LinkedIn.
