Critica has begun an air core (AC) drilling programme at the Jupiter Rare Earth Project in Western Australia’s (WA) Yalgoo mining district as part of an ongoing scoping study.
The initiative aims to upgrade key areas of the existing inferred mineral resource to the indicated classification.
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The project’s scoping study began last month, marking a shift from technical validation to more structured project development.
The WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) is co-funding 50% of the drilling and mobilisation costs, helping to advance the broader project potential while reducing capital expenditure.
The Jupiter drilling programme involves drilling approximately 143 air core holes over a 7,000–10,000m area on a 125m × 125m grid across an optimised resource footprint.
This effort targets priority zones identified through previous optimisation studies, aiming to enhance drill density and improve resource classification.
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By GlobalDataCritica said that it has engaged SRK Consulting to update the mineral resource model of the Jupiter project with new data from this programme, supporting its integration into the scoping study.
Simultaneously, regional drilling is under way at the broader Brothers Project to assess potential resource growth beyond Jupiter’s current footprint.
Critica has also initiated exploration at two key sites, Juno and Aurora.
At Juno, the company plans to drill 30 air core holes along an approximately 2km × 500m corridor, focusing on areas that show a higher proportion of magnet rare earth oxides.
At Aurora, located north-west of Jupiter, plans include 28 air core holes following prior positive indications of clay-hosted rare earth element (REE) mineralisation.
The regional drilling seeks to assess the continuity and scale of mineralisation beyond Jupiter’s current footprint.
This combined resource and regional drilling strategy forms a critical component of Critica’s efforts towards mine planning and resource optimisation at Jupiter.
Critica CEO Jacob Deysel said: “Commencement of this drilling programme represents the next step in advancing Jupiter through the scoping study. The resource upgrade drilling targets priority areas to support upgrading portions of the current inferred resource to indicated classification, with SRK Consulting engaged to update the mineral resource model as new data is incorporated.
“In parallel, regional drilling at Juno and Aurora is testing high-priority targets across the broader Brothers Project, with 50% of drilling and mobilisation costs supported under the WA Government’s EIS co-funded programme.
“Following the recent production of commercial-quality MREC [mixed rare earth carbonate], the company remains focused on disciplined resource upgrade, metallurgical optimisation and study progression toward development.”
Discovered in late 2023, the Jupiter Project has been defined as a clay-hosted rare earth deposit with a stated global resource of 1.8 billion tonnes (bt), containing magnet REEs such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.
Mineralisation is reported to be continuous across an area of approximately 40km², with low levels of uranium and thorium.
