Critica Jupiter Project Achieves 97% TREO Rare Earth Oxide Milestone

Critica Jupiter Project 97% TREO Rare Earth Oxide Results — A Step-Change in Product Quality

Critica Limited (ASX: CRI) has delivered a landmark metallurgical result from its Jupiter Project in Western Australia, producing a third Mixed Rare Earth Oxide (MREO) grading approximately 97% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO). This represents a substantial leap from the 84% TREO and 86% TREO achieved in its two prior MREO productions. The announcement, released 18 May 2026, signals a meaningful inflection point in the company's downstream processing capability and reinforces the technical credibility of its mine-to-magnet strategy.

The Jupiter Project is described as Australia's largest clay-hosted rare earth resource. Furthermore, the Critica Jupiter Project 97% TREO rare earth oxide results highlight total rare earth hydrometallurgical recoveries of up to ~71%, with Magnet Rare Earth (MagREO) recoveries reaching up to ~76%.

MagREO comprises neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — the elements most critical to permanent magnet manufacturing, which underpins electric vehicles, wind turbines, AI data centre cooling systems, and defence applications.

CEO Jacob Deysel commented: "Achieving ~97% Total Rare Earth Oxide in our third MREO marks a significant advancement in product quality and a clear demonstration that Jupiter can deliver a high-purity rare earth product through our hydrometallurgical flowsheet. Importantly, the magnet rare earth recoveries delivered in this testwork are at levels that support meaningful project economics, and these results will feed directly into the Scoping Study currently underway with Sedgman."

From 84% to 97%: A Clear Trajectory of Technical Progress

The progression across three consecutive MREO productions tells a compelling story of iterative refinement and deliberate engineering improvement.

Note: Recoveries reported relate to the hydrometallurgical (MREO production) stage of the flowsheet. Beneficiation stage recoveries were reported separately on 14 April 2026.

Several observations stand out from this data. The jump from MREO 2 to MREO 3 represents the most significant improvement — an increase of approximately 10.8 percentage points in TREO in a single iteration, compared to just ~2.7 points between MREOs 1 and 2.

Neodymium (Nd₂O₃) content climbed from 14.2% in MREO 1 to 19.6% in MREO 3, reflecting growing concentration of the most commercially valuable magnet rare earth element in the product stream.

Terbium (Tb₄O₇), a heavy rare earth with particular relevance to high-performance permanent magnets used in EVs and defence applications, has trended upward across all three MREOs — from 0.13% to 0.25%. In addition, MagREO content as a share of total product has grown from 19.3% to 25.9% across the three MREOs, reinforcing the commercial relevance of the product for magnet supply chains.

Understanding Total Rare Earth Oxide: Why Purity Opens Commercial Doors

What is TREO?

Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) measures the aggregate percentage of rare earth oxide compounds present within a mixed rare earth product. In straightforward terms, it indicates how "pure" or "concentrated" the final product is. The higher the TREO, the lower the proportion of unwanted materials such as iron, silica, or other waste minerals in the product.

Why Does TREO Matter to Investors?

In rare earth product markets, payability — the price a refinery or offtake partner will pay for a mixed rare earth product — is typically calculated based on contained rare earth oxides. Higher TREO grade therefore:

1. Increases the economic value per tonne of product sold, since more of the material being shipped contains commercially useful elements.
2. Reduces downstream processing costs for the buyer, making the product more attractive as feedstock for rare earth separation facilities.
3. Signals processing maturity, demonstrating that the producer has achieved sufficient technical control to remove impurities effectively.

Moving from 84% to ~97% TREO represents a material shift in product quality. This places the Critica Jupiter Project 97% TREO rare earth oxide results in a tier that is genuinely competitive as feedstock for rare earth separation circuits.

Technical Terms Explained

The Magnet Rare Earth Recovery Story: Why ~76% Matters

Beyond TREO grade, the recovery rates achieved in this testwork carry significant weight for project economics. Total rare earth hydrometallurgical recoveries of up to ~71% indicate that the flowsheet efficiently captures the majority of rare earth content from the feed material at the MREO production stage.

MagREO recoveries of up to ~76% are particularly noteworthy. Neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) together constitute the backbone of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets — the type used in EV motors, wind turbine generators, and robotics actuators.

High MagREO recovery rates directly influence the quantity of these economically critical elements that flow through to sellable product. These hydrometallurgical recoveries build upon the separately reported beneficiation recoveries from the 14 April 2026 announcement, which reported approximately 81% magnet rare earth recovery at the beneficiation stage.

Together, the two stages of the flowsheet — beneficiation followed by hydrometallurgical processing — define Jupiter's complete mine-to-MREO processing pathway. According to the company, further recovery upside has been identified, with optimisation of the final processing stages continuing.

Scoping Study Integration and Development Pathway

The timing of this metallurgical result is strategically significant. The results, along with preceding testwork data, are feeding directly into the Scoping Study currently underway with Sedgman — a leading engineering and metallurgical services company.

Scoping Studies provide the first formal techno-economic assessment of a mining project, establishing preliminary estimates of capital and operating costs, processing throughput, and potential project economics. High-quality metallurgical inputs — including demonstrated TREO grades and recovery rates — are foundational to producing credible Scoping Study outputs.

The delivery of a ~97% TREO product with up to ~76% MagREO recovery materially strengthens the inputs Sedgman has available for economic modelling.

Development Milestones and Workstreams

Upcoming priorities include:

1. Continued hydrometallurgical optimisation — focusing on the final stages of the flowsheet where further recovery improvement has been identified
2. Ongoing beneficiation refinement — building on the ~81% MagREO beneficiation recovery reported in April 2026
3. Scoping Study progression with Sedgman — incorporating the latest metallurgical results into project economics
4. Continued engagement with specialist laboratories — including ANSTO, GAVAQ, AMML, and Phenikaa University for REE extraction, oxide, and carbonate production work

Jupiter's Position Within Global Rare Earth Supply Considerations

China currently controls the substantial majority of global rare earth refining and downstream processing capacity. This concentration of supply has attracted considerable attention from governments, manufacturers, and investors globally, as industries reliant on permanent magnets — EVs, wind energy, defence systems, AI infrastructure — seek to diversify their supply chains.

The progression toward producing a ~97% TREO MREO positions Critica as a project working toward contributing to an alternative rare earth supply pathway. Australia's geological endowment of clay-hosted rare earth deposits — a deposit type amenable to simpler processing than hard-rock alternatives — represents a potentially advantaged feedstock source for non-Chinese rare earth refining capacity.

Critica's stated mine-to-magnet strategy reflects an ambition to participate across multiple stages of the rare earth value chain, from resource extraction through to refined products that feed magnet manufacturing. The metallurgical milestones being achieved at Jupiter represent measurable progress along this pathway.

The MREO 3 results were produced from a beneficiated bulk sample drawn from six Air Core and two diamond drill core holes within the Jupiter Inferred Resource envelope — with the Mixed Rare Earth Oxide produced at specialist metallurgical laboratory AMML in West Gosford, NSW, under the supervision of Critica's Chief Metallurgist Dr Hien Dinh.

Investment Considerations: Why These Results Matter

The Critica Jupiter Project 97% TREO rare earth oxide results represent more than laboratory achievement — they constitute a technical validation event with direct commercial implications. Investors monitoring Critica should consider the following dimensions of the Jupiter story:

1. Demonstrated technical trajectory
Three consecutive MREOs showing consistent quality improvement — from 84% to 86% to ~97% TREO — demonstrate that Critica's metallurgical team is making structured, reproducible progress rather than achieving isolated results.

2. Magnet rare earth focus
MagREO content and recovery rates are the commercially critical metrics for the rare earth market most investors are tracking. The ~76% MagREO hydrometallurgical recovery and growing NdPr concentrations in the product stream align Jupiter's output with the specific rare earth elements commanding the strongest demand outlook.

3. Scoping Study as near-term catalyst
The Sedgman Scoping Study represents the next major value-creation milestone. Strong metallurgical inputs — now demonstrated — are a prerequisite for a credible economic outcome. Delivery of the Scoping Study will provide investors with the first formal economic framework for Jupiter.

4. Further upside in recoveries
The company has explicitly identified further recovery upside in the final processing stages, with optimisation ongoing. This suggests the current results may not represent the ceiling of Jupiter's metallurgical performance.

5. Scale of the resource
Jupiter is described as Australia's largest clay-hosted rare earth resource, providing the underlying scale upon which the metallurgical progress being demonstrated can be applied.

Key Takeaway: Critica Limited has now demonstrated that the Jupiter Project can produce a ~97% TREO Mixed Rare Earth Oxide with up to ~76% magnet rare earth recoveries — a step-change in product quality that directly feeds into the Scoping Study underway with Sedgman. With optimisation continuing and formal project economics on the horizon, investors should watch Jupiter closely as it advances toward its next development milestones.

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