Critica Limited (ASX:CRI) Achieves 830% Rare Earth Upgrade
Metallurgical Test Success
Critica Limited (ASX:CRI) has announced a significant breakthrough in metallurgical testwork at its flagship Jupiter Project. The testwork revealed an impressive upgrade factor of approximately 830%, significantly enhancing the project’s potential.
The flotation process operated at room temperature successfully upgraded a composite sample from 1,430 ppm Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) to 13,310 ppm TREO. The initial program aimed to assess beneficiation techniques on the high-grade clay-hosted REE mineralisation present at the site.
Key Highlights
The test results confirm the possibility of producing a high-grade concentrate through a simple flotation process. Remarkably, a 94.5% reduction in mass was achieved to produce the concentrate, emphasizing the efficiency of the method. The preliminary results also show rare earth recoveries exceeding 50%, suggesting substantial economic potential.
Executive Comments
Philippa Leggat, Managing Director of Critica, stated, “The impressive early results deliver a near ten-fold increase in grade through a simple flotation at ambient temperature. Combined with impressive unoptimised first-pass rare earth recoveries of over 50%, these results have hugely exceeded our initial beneficiation ambitions. While only the first process stage under consideration, this places Critica in an excellent position to continue our comprehensive metallurgical programs.”
Next Steps
Critica will persist with its metallurgical testwork programs to maximise recoveries and produce high-grade concentrates. Further results from the ongoing programs are expected in the coming months, further solidifying the project’s prospects.
Motley Fool contributor Kiarra Jackson has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
This article was generated using GPT-4o mini, a Large Language Model (LLM), to generate summaries of investing news. While AI is generating the content, we know better than to blindly trust our future robot overlords, and every article is edited and fact-checked by an editor holding the appropriate credentials. The Motley Fool Australia stands behind the work of our editorial team and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of everything published by The Capital Club.