en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has pointed out that the real challenge in rare earth development lies in completing complex separation and purification processing, rather than mining itself. The organisation stated that rare earths are found in many geological environments globally, and the key to commercial realisation lies in the ability to purify materials, achieve stable recovery rates, and deliver marketable products, with metallurgy becoming central to determining project value.
The federal government supports processing trials to help Australia move up the value chain, but the current domestic processing base remains concentrated in midstream stages such as cracking and leaching. Rare earths underpin growth in electric vehicles, wind turbines, data centres, and defence sectors, making the establishment of processing routes that can effectively recover elements, remove impurities, and deliver materials at scale strategically valuable.
Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King, officially inaugurated ANSTO's new critical minerals facility at Lucas Heights. ANSTO noted that for small companies attempting to transition from laboratory to commercial production, metallurgy has become a core focus, aiming to improve recovery rates, remove waste, and produce concentrates, carbonates, or oxides for downstream supply. China's control over rare earths, gallium, and tungsten processing has prompted Western players to seek more onshore value.
Critica (ASX:CRI) is advancing its clay-hosted Jupiter rare earth project in Western Australia and the Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania, planning to complete scoping studies for both by September 2026. Jupiter has a resource of 1.8 billion tonnes at 1700 ppm TREO; Mt Lindsay hosts 81,000 tonnes of tin and 32,000 tonnes of tungsten. Initial beneficiation trials achieved a 14-fold grade upgrade, recovering approximately 81% of magnet rare earth oxides, with the resulting product to be used for scoping studies and sample provision to potential offtake partners.
Critica CEO Jacob Deysel stated that Jupiter's clay-hosted resource is a key differentiator, potentially meaning lower reagent consumption, cleaner impurity management, and lower-cost downstream processing. The company can remove waste early and enrich valuable minerals before hydrometallurgical treatment, thereby reducing the scale and cost of downstream steps. Deysel noted that the industry initially focused too much on grade rather than extractability, and magnet rare earths have proven to be the true value marker, with investor attention shifting to element composition, product quality, and processing routes. In Jupiter's rare earth basket, magnet rare earths such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium account for approximately 25%.
Critica positions Jupiter as the cornerstone of a broader critical metals strategy, planning to make it a platform for rare earths, gallium, yttrium, and potential by-product revenue from iron concentrate, expanding exposure to defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and decarbonisation-related metals alongside the Mt Lindsay asset. Deysel stated that the company is evolving into a critical metals platform with multiple demand drivers and near-term catalysts.
Several Australian companies are making progress in rare earth processing. St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) is advancing the Araxá project in Brazil, which involves niobium and rare earths, having secured A$60 million in funding. The project is transitioning from resource growth to feasibility studies, metallurgy, permitting, and project design, with pilot-scale trials underway to separate niobium and rare earth product streams. Executive Chairman John Prineas stated that the dual-commodity angle is a key commercial advantage for the project.
Mont Royal Resources (ASX:MRZ) is advancing the Ashram project in Quebec, which hosts 204.3 million tonnes of ore at 1.9% TREO. An updated preliminary economic assessment adopts an off-site hydrometallurgical model centred on Saguenay, planning to process 69,500 tonnes of flotation concentrate annually to produce 33,800 tonnes of mixed rare earth carbonate, with an estimated after-tax net present value of C$2.03 billion and an internal rate of return of 22%. Managing Director Nicholas Holthouse stated that the study demonstrates the project's scale and competitive cost structure.
Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) positions North Stanmore in Western Australia as Australia's largest clay-hosted heavy rare earth project, with a JORC resource of 321 million tonnes. ALS metallurgical leach tests show that under ambient temperature, low-acid conditions, target heavy rare earth and magnet rare earth recovery rates reach 70% to over 80%, with extraction completed within 30 minutes. The project has entered the product qualification stage, sending heavy rare earth concentrate from its Perth pilot plant to potential offtake partners. CEO Brendan Clark stated that the product is being evaluated by those who need it most.
Red Metal (ASX:RDM) is advancing the Sybella project in northwest Queensland, which hosts 4.795 billion tonnes of inferred resources containing neodymium-praseodymium and dysprosium-terbium. Column leach tests at Kary show that coarsely crushed weathered bedrock and transitional ore, using dilute sulphuric acid at ambient temperature, achieved extraction rates of 70-76% for neodymium and 71-78% for praseodymium, with low impurities and moderate acid consumption. A pre-feasibility study will test whether the heap leach route can enable large-scale, low-cost development. Managing Director Rob Rutherford stated that the tests confirm the ore can be coarsely crushed, stacked, and leached at ambient temperature, effectively recovering both light and heavy rare earths.
Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) has obtained a mining licence for the measured resource area of the Sandy Mitchell project in North Queensland, targeting first production by 2028. Recent trials produced a commercial monazite product grading 54.8% TREO, with neodymium-praseodymium oxide accounting for 23.4%, while also producing a leucoxene product grading 73.5% TiO₂. Chairman Roger Jackson stated that the latest metallurgical work indicates the project is ready to produce marketable monazite concentrate, with further optimisation underway.
Axel REE (ASX:AXL) is developing a rare earth project based on in-situ recovery at Caladão in Brazil, selecting Woolrich as the field trial site. Column leach tests using a mild magnesium sulphate solution recovered up to 560 ppm soluble TREO, producing a basket with 39% magnet rare earth oxides. Field trials will transition from laboratory validation to field-scale testing. Managing Director Patience Mpofu stated that the tests show Woolrich behaves like a true ionic clay system, achieving magnet-rich rare earth recovery rates under realistic flow conditions.
Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) is developing heavy rare earth, scandium, and gallium resources at Grass Patch in Western Australia, having delineated an inferred resource of approximately 122.5 million tonnes at 889 ppm TREO, with heavy rare earth oxides comprising 41%. Historical tests indicate heavy rare earth recovery rates of up to 86.5% under conventional hydrochloric acid leach conditions, including dysprosium and terbium. Further work will test low-cost extraction methods. CEO Allister Caird stated that these results may mark the beginning of a significant downstream program.
