Major Funding Boost for WA Rare Earths Project
Australian critical minerals developer Critica Limited has successfully closed an oversubscribed $8 million placement, receiving a significant $500,000 investment from prominent mining fund manager Lion Selection Group Limited. This substantial funding injection will accelerate development of the company's massive Jupiter rare earths project located in Western Australia's Yalgoo region.
The commitment from Lion Selection Group represents the fund manager's second investment in Critica, having initially backed the company in mid-2024. This continued support signals strong institutional confidence in Critica's progression toward developer status at its flagship Jupiter project.
Jupiter Project: Australia's Premier Rare Earths Resource
Located just 50 kilometres west of the historic town of Mount Magnet, the Jupiter project hosts Australia's largest clay-hosted rare earths resource. The project contains a massive 1.8 billion tonnes grading 1700 parts per million total rare earths at a 1000ppm cut-off grade.
What makes Jupiter particularly valuable is its rich concentration of high-value magnet rare earth oxides, including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium oxides. These elements are essential for manufacturing permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, renewable power generation, energy storage systems and defence technology applications.
Adding to the project's strategic importance, the deposit also contains approximately 70,000 tonnes of gallium oxide, averaging about 39 parts per million throughout the resource. Gallium is increasingly recognised as a critical mineral globally, enhancing Jupiter's multi-commodity potential.
Technical Advantages and Metallurgical Breakthroughs
The Jupiter project offers several compelling advantages that position it as a potentially low-cost mining operation. The deposit features shallow, clay-hosted mineralisation with a low strip ratio, providing significant operational benefits.
Recent breakthrough beneficiation testwork has demonstrated remarkable results, achieving up to 95% mass rejection from potential ore samples while delivering an eightfold grade uplift into magnet-rare-earths concentrate. Initial leaching tests have also yielded high recoveries into mixed rare earth oxides (MREO).
Critica CEO Jacob Deysel confirmed the company's progress, stating: "Critica is now fully funded to advance the Jupiter Project through the staged work programs that will ultimately support a Scoping Study. We currently have multiple metallurgical testwork streams underway as we systematically validate and build on the positive initial results released to the market."
Another significant advantage is the deposit's exceptionally low uranium and thorium levels, which avoids common downstream handling and waste management challenges often associated with rare earths projects.
Funding Allocation and Strategic Direction
The $8 million placement was priced at 2.6 cents per share, representing a 16.1% discount to Critica's closing price of A$0.031 on 11 November 2025. The funding will see approximately 307 million shares issued plus one-for-one free attaching options exercisable at 4.3 cents with a two-year expiry.
The capital raising is structured in two tranches, with Tranche 1 ($5.3 million) settling on November 20, 2025, and Tranche 2 ($2.4 million, including $320,000 from directors) pending shareholder approval in January 2026.
Post-placement, Critica's financial position will strengthen to approximately $11.7 million, combining existing cash, placement proceeds and a pending $1 million R&D rebate.
The funding will be strategically allocated across key project areas:
- $2.25 million for resource upgrades and exploration drilling
- $3 million for metallurgical pilot work
- $1.5 million for the pivotal project scoping study
- $1.25 million for offtake discussions and strategic reviews
Broader Portfolio and Market Context
Beyond the Jupiter project, Critica maintains strategic assets including the Mt Lindsay project in northwest Tasmania. This represents a massive, undeveloped tin-tungsten skarn deposit that ranks among the world's largest tin resources.
The company will conduct a comprehensive review of Mt Lindsay to evaluate its potential as a major producer of critical minerals tin and tungsten. With tin prices surging around US$36,000 per tonne and tungsten's recognised critical status, this review could unlock significant additional value in Critica's dual-state portfolio.
The review will focus on confirming the project's substantial tin and tungsten reserves, testing new processing techniques, and assessing opportunities for partnerships or divestment that could further support Critica's rare earths focus at Jupiter.
Critica's strategic positioning comes amid escalating global efforts to diversify rare earths supply chains away from China's dominance in mining and refining. The Jupiter project's scale and relative simplicity position Critica as a significant Western-aligned contender in the global race for critical minerals security.
With Lion's new investment lifting its stake to 2.4%, combined with ongoing testwork advancing its mine-to-magnet roadmap, Critica is well-positioned to deliver multi-commodity domestic supply resilience at a time of increasing geopolitical focus on critical minerals independence.
