Ongoing trials at partners GAVAQ, ANSTO – Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation – and Australian combined consultancy Minutech- AMML will now hone precipitation methods to yield specification-compliant gallium products, while also scouting possible germanium and scandium production pathways.
And the timing couldn’t be sharper amid global supply chain tensions.
China dominates more than 98% of global gallium production and imposed export license controls in 2024 which eventually escalated to a full ban on shipments to the US by December.
Gallium is essential for next-generation semiconductors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and assorted defence technologies and its scarcity amplifies Jupiter’s role in sustaining Western-aligned critical minerals security.
Critica’s project de-risking momentum is accelerating, building on the company’s 50kg laboratory proof-of-concept upgrade work in January.
That early work achieved an upgrade factor of about 830% by subjecting a composite sample from Jupiter of representative mineralisation to a simple flotation process at room temperature to produce a beneficiated product grading 13,310ppm (or 1.331%) TREO.
That triumph resulted in the company sending a 400kg bulk dispatch to GAVAQ in Vietnam in May for scale-up testwork.
Those earlier milestones were followed by September’s intermediate product validation which saw material sent to GAVAQ, ANSTO and Minutech for parallel hydromet programs, which confirmed flotation-to-leach integration and process consistency and delivered between 6 and 10 times TREO beneficiation through about 95% mass rejection
In early September, the company commissioned a 3000kg closed-circuit pilot plant to provide continuous operating data and additional concentrate for further product optimisation.
A real red-letter day came on 28 October when Critica achieved its first MREP production through a standard acid-bake pathway, followed by calcining.
The process delivered a product from Jupiter concentrate assaying 84% TREO, for a 78% recovery to magnet REO, confirming high leach extraction and validating the company’s beneficiation-first strategy.
The data will feed directly into a H1 2026 Scoping Study and H2 2026 pre-feasibility study (PFS), while offtake talks are currently underway.
At a cut-off grade of 1000ppm TREO, Critica’s giant rare earths/critical metals resource contains an eye-watering inferred 1.8 billion tonnes at a grade of 1700ppm TREO, 380ppm magnet rare earths oxides (MREO) and 39ppm gallium oxide, containing 2.94 million tonnes of TREO, 682,000 tonnes of MREO and 70,100 tonnes of gallium oxide.
As pilot operations ramp up through H1 2026, Critica is positioning Jupiter not just as a rare earths powerhouse, but a multi-commodity gemstone in Australia’s critical minerals crown that is poised to deliver diversified value in an increasingly geopolitically-difficult world.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
