Dongo Kundu SEZ · Mombasa, Kenya
Orion Materials is developing East Africa's first rare earth oxide separation facility at Dongo Kundu SEZ, Mombasa — processing African rare earth concentrate into high-purity NdPr oxide for global manufacturers.
Development stage company. Orion Materials is currently in the project development phase. We are not yet in production. Our separation facility at Dongo Kundu SEZ is under active development.
We are developing a rare earth oxide separation facility at Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone, Mombasa — targeting first production in 2029.
Orion Materials is an early-stage project developing East Africa's first rare earth oxide separation facility. Our planned facility at Dongo Kundu SEZ will receive rare earth concentrate sourced from African producers and separate it into high-purity neodymium-praseodymium oxide — a critical material for electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators, and advanced industrial applications.
Global demand for rare earth oxides is growing rapidly, driven by the energy transition and advanced manufacturing. Africa has extraordinary rare earth resources. Orion is developing the processing infrastructure to capture that opportunity.
We are currently completing our engineering studies, initiating our regulatory applications, and building our feedstock supply and offtake relationships. We are approaching institutional investors to fund the facility construction.
Africa has historically exported raw materials. Orion is being built to change that equation — manufacturing here, keeping the value here.
An honest picture of Orion's progress. We are at an early but active stage — moving fast across all workstreams simultaneously.
Facility concept defined. Feedstock strategy established. Product specification confirmed. Inbound customer enquiry received from Korean automotive buyer before company registration.
SEZA Expression of Interest being prepared for Dongo Kundu SEZ provisional land allocation. NuPEA pre-application meeting scheduled. Regulatory workstreams initiated.
Lycopodium Conceptual Study to be commissioned. Metallurgical testwork programme for African concentrate feedstocks. Pre-Feasibility Study to follow.
NuPEA Radioactive Materials Licence. NEMA Environmental Impact Assessment. SEZA Enterprise Licence. Ministry of Mining no-objection letter.
Institutional capital raise targeting development finance institutions and strategic investors. EPC contract with specialist engineering firm. Facility construction at Dongo Kundu SEZ.
Facility commissioning and first commercial NdPr oxide production. Initial capacity 1,000 tonnes per year, scaling toward 5,000 tonnes with Phase 2 expansion.
Africa does not need more mines. It needs more factories. Orion is being built to be that factory.
Orion Materials — founding conviction
Four steps. One facility. One product the world needs urgently. This is how Orion's planned Mombasa SEZ facility will convert African rare earth concentrate into separated NdPr oxide — and deliver it to manufacturers in Asia, Europe, and North America.
African rare earth concentrate arrives at the Mombasa SEZ facility from producers across the region. Each batch is sampled and tested before entering the circuit.
Input feedstock from African producersConcentrate is dissolved in sulphuric acid to produce a pregnant leach solution. Thorium and uranium impurities are removed under NuPEA Radioactive Materials Licence conditions.
Controlled under NuPEA licenceAn 80-stage solvent extraction circuit separates individual rare earth elements. Neodymium and praseodymium are isolated as a high-purity oxide — our primary product.
Target output: 99.5%+ purity NdPr oxideSeparated NdPr is precipitated, calcined at 900°C, quality certified, packed in drums, and shipped from Mombasa Port to magnet manufacturers worldwide.
Current market: $99–144/kg · May 2026Neodymium-praseodymium oxide is the critical input for permanent magnet manufacturing. Every EV motor needs it. Every wind turbine needs it. Demand is growing rapidly across automotive, energy, and industrial sectors. Orion is developing Africa's contribution to global supply.
All specifications below are engineering targets. Confirmed through feasibility study and metallurgical testwork programme currently being commissioned.
Every EV motor requires 1–2kg of NdPr for its permanent magnet drive system. Global EV production is growing at 30%+ per year.
Offshore wind turbines require up to 600kg of NdPr per generator. The clean energy transition depends on a stable, non-Chinese rare earth supply chain.
Guidance systems, radar, and aerospace components require rare earth oxides of the highest purity. Western governments are actively building diversified rare earth supply chains.
Industrial robots and precision actuators depend on permanent magnet motors. Advanced manufacturing depends on reliable NdPr supply.
Smartphones, headphones, hard drives, and medical devices use miniaturised rare earth magnets manufactured from high-purity oxide.
Companies including Less Common Metals UK, NEO Performance Materials, and Japanese magnet houses are actively seeking non-Chinese NdPr oxide supply.
Orion is not developing a mine. We are developing the separation facility that processes African rare earth concentrate — regardless of which deposit it comes from. This model is more capital-efficient, faster to build, and captures the highest-margin step in the rare earth value chain.
The factory is our business. NdPr oxide is our product. We source concentrate from African producers under supply agreements — we do not need to own the deposits.
We are in discussion with ore producers across East and Southern Africa. Multiple supply sources provide resilience and processing scale economics.
Solvent extraction separation is an established commercial technology used by leading rare earth processors globally. We are engaging specialist engineering firms with rare earth facility experience.
Our facility is in Africa. Our workforce will be African. The processing premium — which China has captured for 40 years — stays on the continent.
Our planned facility site is at Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone — 8 kilometres from Mombasa Port, East Africa's largest deep-water facility. We are in the process of applying for our provisional land allocation from the Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA).
The SEZ framework provides a 10-year corporate tax holiday, duty-free equipment imports, zero-rated VAT, and fast-track regulatory coordination through SEZA's one-stop-shop service.
We are actively seeking institutional investors, offtake partners for our planned NdPr oxide production, and rare earth concentrate suppliers across Africa. We welcome serious enquiries from qualified parties.
Orion Materials Limited is a pre-construction development stage company. We are not yet in production. All projections are subject to completion of engineering studies, regulatory approvals, and financing. This website does not constitute an offer of securities.