Critica boosts WA rare earths prize with bumper high-grade drill hits

Critica Limited has unearthed further high-grade rare earth mineralisation at its flagship Jupiter project in Western Australia, with a chunky resource definition drilling program confirming continuity of the priority zones set to underpin an updated resource estimate.

The company pushed 145 air core holes into the ground for a whopping 7274 metres, spaced on a tight 125m by 125m grid across a three-square-kilometre pocket of the sprawling 40-square-kilometre Jupiter inferred resource.

The tighter spacing was purpose-built to lift confidence in the priority zones and support their conversion from the lower-confidence inferred category into the more bankable indicated classification.

Standout hits included 23m grading 3603 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide (TREO) from just 20m downhole in one hole, including a punchy 12m at 5350ppm TREO. Another drill hole went one better on width, returning a thumping 73m at 2400ppm TREO from 16m, featuring a richer 32-metre core running at 3551ppm TREO.

Elsewhere, the company also reported solid intercepts of 30m at 2995ppm and 40m at 2626ppm TREO, with two other drill holes returning wide zones grading above 2100ppm TREO.

Taken together, the results paint a picture of a resource that holds its grade over broad widths near surface - exactly the kind of continuity Critica needs to de-risk Jupiter as it edges towards development.

Adding extra shine to the result, the resource upgrade area overlaps directly with ground already used in the company’s beneficiation and hydrometallurgical testwork, meaning the metallurgical performance data and the resource definition drilling are now speaking the same language.

The flat-lying, near-surface Jupiter deposit is a style of mineralisation acknowledged for its simpler metallurgy and potentially lower capital intensity compared to hard-rock rare earths deposits. That simplicity should help underpin the company’s “beneficiate-first” strategy, which aims to upgrade the ore six to ten times early in the flowsheet process before downstream processing begins.

The assay numbers have already been handed to SRK Consulting, who are currently working through an updated mineral resource estimate for Jupiter. That refresh, along with the metallurgical gains banked over the past year, is set to feed directly into the Jupiter scoping study, which is due to drop in the September quarter.

The results have successfully validated the targeted higher-grade zones within the existing resource and demonstrate strong continuity of mineralisation across the resource upgrade area.

Jupiter is touted as Australia’s largest clay-hosted rare earth resource, offering leverage to magnet rare earths, gallium and yttrium just as electrification, robotics and artificial intelligence infrastructure ramp up demand for the critical inputs. Paired with its Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania, Critica appears to have its hands full building out a multi-commodity critical minerals platform spanning five commodities.

That positioning looks timely. China currently controls around 98 per cent of global gallium supply, more than 85 per cent of rare earth processing, upwards of 80 per cent of tungsten production and processing and over 35 per cent of refined tin supply.

Adding to the mix, demand for rare earths continues to accelerate, driven by electric vehicles, renewable energy, advanced electronics and defence applications.

With export restrictions tightened further in November 2025 and Western defence supply chains actively chasing non-China sources by 2027, Critica finds itself sitting on exactly the kind of diversified, Western-aligned critical minerals exposure that governments and manufacturers are now scrambling to secure.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au