Australian rare earths explorer Critica delineates first indicated resource at Jupiter
ASX-listed Critica has released an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Jupiter rare earths project in Western Australia, which delivers its first indicated category of resources.
The updated MRE establishes an indicated mineral resource of 160-million tonnes grading 1700 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO), representing about 10% of the total Jupiter resource tonnage.
"The delivery of Jupiter’s first indicated mineral resource is an important milestone for the project and demonstrates the effectiveness of the targeted infill drilling completed over the past year.
"The results provide increased confidence in the geological and grade continuity of the infill-drilled area, while the vast majority of the Jupiter resource remains classified as inferred. This gives us confidence in our approach to progressively increasing resource confidence across Jupiter," says Critica CEO Jacob Deysel.
He adds that, importantly, the indicated resource also contains a strong contribution from the key magnet rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which together represent about 25% of the project's TREO within the indicated mineral resource.
On an inferred basis, Jupiter has 1.7-billion tonnes grading 1700 ppm TREO.
The Jupiter clay-hosted rare earths deposit forms part of Critica's Brother project, which currently covers 1700 km2 of semi-contiguous granted exploration licences in Western Australia.
Critica is progressing a scoping study on the Jupiter deposit, which is expected to be published soon.
