Critical Metals Announced Rare Earth Refining Process
The company plans a $1.85 billion refinery to process concentrates from Greenland.
Updated on Sept. 22, 2026 in Materials Science
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Critical Metals has unveiled a patent-pending process designed to recover rare earth minerals from eudialyte concentrates. The firm intends to build a facility in Romania to process output from the Tanbreez project in Greenland.
Why it matters
Securing domestic supply chains for rare earth elements is a global industrial priority, and this proposed facility aims to process a significant volume of raw materials annually. The development highlights ongoing efforts to diversify mineral refining capacity away from current dominant players.
The proposed refinery features an annual processing capacity of 100,000 mt of eudialyte concentrates, aiming to produce 27,943 mt of metal products. The company claims a dissolution rate exceeding 99% for 19 distinct rare earth and critical metal products.
The players
Critical Metals
A mineral processing company focused on developing patent-pending technologies for rare earth element recovery.
Tanbreez
A mining project located in Killavaat Alannguat, Greenland, focused on the extraction of eudialyte concentrates.
The details
The facility will utilize a patent-pending chemical process to dissolve eudialyte, a mineral rich in rare earth elements, sourced from the Tanbreez project in Killavaat Alannguat, Greenland. The refinery is slated to receive 50% of the total concentrates produced at the site to maintain its annual throughput. This approach focuses on optimizing the extraction efficiency of a broad range of 19 different metal products from the concentrated ore.
Timeline
September 22, 2026: Critical Metals announced the new mineral process and facility plans.
The Tech Race
This project marks a strategic attempt to expand the rare earth element refining ecosystem dominated by China. By vertically integrating extraction in Greenland with a high-capacity European refinery, the company seeks to compete with established global mineral processing pipelines.
The potential impact of this refinery centers on industrial supply chains for electronics and high-tech manufacturing, rather than immediate consumer-facing product availability. Once operational, the facility would represent a new source for the 19 critical metals produced.
The takeaway
The project claims a two-year payback period, which sets a high benchmark for capital efficiency in the mineral refining sector. Stakeholders should monitor for official site permit approvals and finalized construction schedules in Romania to verify the proposed timeline.
Further reading
For more on the latest research in the field, see Materials Science.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Metal.
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