Critica has beefed up its project development personnel with the appointment of experienced minerals engineer Mike Kevan as interim study manager, signalling its evolution from explorer to developer as it pushes ahead with two major scoping studies.

The fresh appointment is aimed at strengthening the company’s technical capability as it progresses parallel studies on two wholly owned flagship assets, namely the Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania and the Jupiter rare earths project in Western Australia.

Critica’s portfolio, covering rare earths, yttrium, gallium, tin and tungsten, aligns squarely with materials deemed essential for a wide range of modern applications across diverse fields, including defence, electronics, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and the green energy transition.

Mr Kevan is a minerals engineer with more than 25 years of experience in mineral processing, engineering leadership and project development across a suite of commodities, including critical minerals, iron ore and base metals. His role will be to support Critica’s technical personnel and external consultants as it pushes ahead with the two studies.

We are advancing two significant Scoping Studies in parallel across Mt Lindsay and Jupiter as we continue to build Critica into a leading Australian critical minerals developer. As these projects mature, we are strengthening our project development team and the systems, governance and technical integration required to support their progression through the next stages of development.

The scoping study at Mt Lindsay is pushing ahead with a first-principles revamp of what is considered one of Australia’s biggest undeveloped tin-tungsten projects.

The new design envisages a modern underground development concept, integrating mining, processing, infrastructure and environmental considerations to minimise its surface footprint and disturbance. The blueprint includes a proposal to use an old Hydro-Electric Commission quarry for its portal location. The portal configuration remains subject to ongoing engineering, environmental assessment and regulatory approvals.

The project hosts an estimated resource of 81,000 tonnes of tin and 3.2 million metric tonne units of tungsten trioxide, equivalent to around 32,000 tonnes of tungsten metal.

Simultaneously, Critica is progressing its scoping study for the Jupiter project, near Mt Magnet in WA, which it describes as Australia’s largest clay-hosted rare earths resource, currently sitting at a whopping 1.8 billion tonnes.

The Jupiter study incorporates the results of its recent metallurgical optimisation work, which the company says has improved beneficiation performance, concentrate grade and hydrometallurgical outcomes. The project hosts valuable magnet and heavy rare earths including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, in addition to yttrium and the potentially lucrative co-products of gallium and scandium.

Mike Kevan’s inclusion into Critica’s engineering management comes against a geopolitical backdrop increasingly focused on new non-China sources of critical minerals. With China’s rare earths export regime still biting global supply chains and Canberra explicitly prioritising materials such as rare earths and gallium for inclusion in a national strategic reserve, the timing for developing Australia’s own assets - many of which are world-class - has rarely been better.

With both the Mt Lindsay and Jupiter scoping studies slated for completion in the third quarter of 2026, Critica appears to be assembling a scalable Australian critical minerals platform. By boosting its project management and development horsepower, the company appears to be sending a strong signal that it is looking to round the corner from explorer to a name to watch in the resource development space.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au