Critica Limited chief executive officer Jacob Deysel said: “Producing a second high-grade MREO at 86% TREO from a different domain within Jupiter is a major validation step for Critica. We are seeing exactly what a scalable project should demonstrate—consistent, repeatable upgrade of the four high-value Magnet Rare Earths and Yttrium from the global resource, through beneficiation, and into final product.”
With China still controlling more than 90 per cent of the global downstream rare earths supply chain, the latest results appear to reinforce Jupiter’s standing as a strategically important, scalable, Western-aligned rare earths development. In particular, the impressive upgrade in yttrium – a metal tightly controlled by Beijing – only seems to strengthen Jupiter’s hand even further.
Critica’s metallurgical work is being backed by serious technical muscle. The company’s 3,000-kilogram beneficiation pilot plant in Hanoi is being commissioned with the help of Vietnam’s Centre of Science and Technology of Minerals and Environment (GAVQ).
Once up and running, the company says the facility will help lock in final product specifications for magnet rare earths, yttrium, gallium and other by-products. The results will then feed directly into a scoping study due in the first half of 2026.
Meanwhile, the government-backed Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and Perth-based Minutech are continuing to run hydrometallurgical programs to fine-tune the beneficiation process.
Meanwhile, the government-backed Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is running extraction, leaching and recovery tests on upgraded Jupiter concentrates and brings decades of expertise in rare earth chemistry and uranium-thorium management.
Additionally, Perth-based Minutech-AMML- one of Australia’s most experienced hydrometallurgical laboratories, is also in the mix, putting the concentrate through acid leaching, impurity removal and precipitation.
With two high-grade mixed rare earths products now delivered from separate parts of the orebody, a pilot plant about to shift into gear and three specialist laboratories all converging on the same consistent results, Critica appears to be closing in on a technically robust, rare earths solution at exactly the moment global markets are crying out for supply.
And with $8 million safely banked from a fresh capital raise – pushing its war chest to nearly $12 million once the R&D rebate drops – the company has the firepower to keep its foot down as Jupiter accelerates toward its next major milestones.
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