The Centre for Science and Technology of Mineral and Environment (GAVAQ) in Hanoi will design, construct, and operate a pilot-scale plant for mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) from Critica’s (ASX:CRI) Jupiter Project in Western Australia.
The plant will process a 3,000kg run-of-mine bulk sample sourced from Jupiter using a magnetic separation and floatation flowsheet, producing rare earth concentrate ahead of Critica’s plans for downstream testwork and a Scoping Study.
CEO Jacob Deysel says Critica is targeting a smaller leach plant with a lower reagent intensity to streamline the company towards MREC production.
“Approving the Jupiter pilot and appointing GAVAQ is a key step on our ‘Scale, Simplicity, Speed’ roadmap,” Deysel says.
“By upgrading before leaching, we reject around 95% of mass and lift grades more than eight-fold ahead of hydrometallurgy.”
As reported by Mining.com.au last week (26 August), Critica shipped its first concentrate from the project to Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to commence testwork to produce MREC to production.
ANSTO’s involvement is running concurrently with Minutech’s complementary hydrometallurgy assessments that intends to benchmark processing routes.
Critica is utilising both programs to reveal chemistry and operating conditions from the concentrate by incorporating pilot work and economic development.
Critica is a critical minerals explorer focused on bringing its Jupiter Rare Earths Project from “resource to revenue”.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Critica
