Major UK rare earths refinery scrapped in favour of US

Plans for a groundbreaking rare earths refinery in East Yorkshire have been abandoned, after the company behind the project decided to seek investment in the United States instead. Pensana has spent the past seven years developing a rare earths mine in Angola. The $268m (£185m) project, one of the largest of its kind in the world, will begin delivering raw materials in 2027. The company had planned to build a refinery at the Saltend Chemicals Plant near Hull, which would have processed the raw materials into metals used to create powerful magnets. These magnets would then be used in high-tech applications such as motors for electric vehicles, wind turbines and robotics.