The company says because of its enormous size, grade and proximity to major infrastructure, there is every chance of finding a relatively cheap processing solution when the metallurgists have solved the puzzle.
Critica Limited managing director Philippa Leggat said: “It is incredibly exciting to be able to unveil Australia’s premier clay hosted rare earths deposit – the numbers speak for themselves. Our maiden resource represents a major milestone that we have, rather remarkably, delivered in just over a year from announcing the discovery in November 2023.”
Rare earth elements are crucial in producing the high-performance magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and advanced electronics. Jupiter contains a highly valuable subset of these elements, including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which account for about 23pc of the total rare earth elements.
With $6 million in the bank as at the end of December and most of the costly drilling now completed, Critica appears to remain in rare financial health. It will move forward in the next few months with advanced metallurgical testing and some additional targeted drilling across several satellite deposits at Jupiter.
To add to its near-term funding options, Critica has a tungsten-tin asset that has been languishing on the company’s book for an extraordinary 18 years and is currently up for sale. It will likely be courting some sudden interest from potential buyers for the project, after China’s recent decision to ban the export of tungsten among other metals in retaliation for US tariffs.
The Mount Lindsay project in Tasmania hosts one of the biggest undeveloped tin deposits in the world, containing more than 80,000t of the metal as well as a significant 13,000t tungsten resource.
With China determined to retain its tungsten for domestic use, 80pc of the global supply of the grey metal has instantly evaporated, leaving western nations scrambling for alternative sources.
Critica has had a remarkably quick turnaround in fortunes recently.
The starting gun was fired started after Leggat, the then new appointed managing director, decided to pivot the company by focusing its efforts on the Jupiter grounds – a project which had been largely sitting in the “to do” file gathering dust.
Between selling its Riley iron ore assets in Tasmania, bringing two new sticky institutional investors onto the register with a $3.5m investment and raising a further $6m in a placement, the company was able to top up the bank balance with $12m in new funds.
Between selling its Riley iron ore assets in Tasmania, bringing two new sticky institutional investors on to the register with a $3.5m investment and raising a further $6m in a placement, the company was able to top up the bank balance with $12m in new funds.
Critica then set about drilling 40,000m of exploration holes into Jupiter, resulting in the biggest ever clay-hosted discovery of rare earths in Australia.
All of this was achieved in little more than 12 months and for just a bit more than $6m in exploration spend.
Punters are likely to be hoping for a similar repeat performance in the coming year after the share price rallied 120pc in 2024. Critica seems to be having a red-hot crack at unlocking Jupiter’s metallurgical code – if it succeeds the punters are unlikely to be disappointed.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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