Critica Limited has reported gallium extraction of up to 91.9 per cent and scandium extraction of up to 84.7 per cent from its 100 per cent-owned Jupiter rare earths project in Western Australia’s Mid West.
The results raise the prospect of additional by-product value from two critical minerals that were not assigned any value in the project’s recent scoping study, which gave Jupiter an after-tax net present value of $2 billion.
Gallium extraction was a marked improvement on the previously reported rate of 63 per cent. Five of the seven gallium tests achieved extraction of more than 84 per cent, while four of the same seven samples produced scandium extraction above 80 per cent.
Critica stressed that the figures measure the amount of each metal transferred into solution during leaching. They do not yet represent final product recoveries.
Initial resin adsorption work has nevertheless demonstrated that gallium, scandium and rare earths can be co-loaded onto resin, providing an early indication that a workable separation process may be developed.
Jupiter resource contains significant gallium and scandium
The results came from drill-sample composites representing the typical iron-clay mineralisation at Jupiter. The process involved acid baking followed by water leaching, producing a pregnant solution containing gallium, scandium and rare earths.
Critica’s 160 million-tonne indicated resource contains an estimated 6,400 tonnes of gallium oxide and 7,200 tonnes of scandium oxide. Its larger 1.5 billion-tonne inferred resource contains an estimated 60,000 tonnes of gallium oxide and 54,000 tonnes of scandium oxide.
Both metals have been identified as critical minerals by the Australian Federal Government, which has highlighted them as being vulnerable to supply disruption. Canberra’s $1.2 billion Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve is initially focused on antimony, gallium and rare earths.
Gallium’s strategic importance has also increased amid export restrictions from China, which accounts for almost all global primary low-purity gallium production. The metal is used in semiconductor, defence and advanced manufacturing supply chains.
Critica will now investigate the downstream stages of the process, including resin selectivity, elution, separation and purification. The company plans to assess distinct recovery routes before incorporating the findings into Jupiter’s wider processing flowsheet.
If those studies are successful, gallium and scandium could provide additional credits to a project whose current economic analysis does not include either metal.
