Victory Metals signs Curtin agreement for pilot rare earth processing
Concentrate from Burswood will go to Curtin's C4P facility, with samples intended for assessment before potential refining-partner evaluation.
Theo Marchetti
Victory Metals Limited ASXVTM, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, signed a material transfer agreement with Curtin University for pilot rare earth processing using approximately A$18.4 million of existing infrastructure, it said on Wednesday. The agreement covers material transfers during 2026 and 2027, giving the North Stanmore developer access to downstream processing infrastructure without building an equivalent facility.
Heavy rare earth concentrate from Victory's operational Burswood pilot plant in Perth will be transferred to Curtin's Cathode Precursor Production Pilot Plant, known as C4P. The work aims to convert that concentrate into mixed rare earth carbonate, or MREC.
Victory shares were higher at A$1.25 on the Australian Securities Exchange as of 4:10 p.m. AEDT on Nov. 11, according to Google Finance's ASXVTM page.
Samples produced under the program are intended to return to Victory for technical assessment and potential evaluation with international offtake and refining partners. That evaluation remains subject to further testwork and negotiation of relevant commercial arrangements.
Existing Equipment Supports Product Qualification
Victory is developing the North Stanmore heavy rare earth and critical minerals project near Cue in Western Australia. The Curtin agreement extends its processing work beyond the concentrate produced at Burswood toward a product suitable for downstream separation and refining.
C4P was developed through collaboration between Curtin, CSIRO and the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia. The Nov. 11 announcement describes the approximately A$18.4 million as investment by C4P's project partners in existing processing infrastructure.
Access to that equipment provides a route to pilot-scale MREC production and product qualification, according to the announcement. Victory said using the established facility reduces its need to independently establish an equivalent processing platform for this stage of development. The work also draws on C4P's technical expertise and research capabilities.
"This is particularly important because we can leverage established Australian processing infrastructure and expertise rather than having to develop every stage of the downstream processing pathway independently," Victory chief executive and executive director Brendan Clark said in the release.
The Work Builds On An Earlier Partnership
Curtin's Feb. 16 partnership announcement said its specialists would support North Stanmore with water management, recycling, recovery and metallurgy. That earlier collaboration included the government-backed Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer initiative and support for studies required to advance the project toward commercial production.
The new agreement adds access to downstream pilot equipment to that relationship. Victory says the resulting MREC could be evaluated with potential international customers and refining partners as it develops an Australian heavy rare earth supply chain.
Read more: Solvay signs offtake for 70 per cent of Viridis' planned magnetic rare-earth capacity
The next step is transferring concentrate and process materials within the agreement's 2026 and 2027 window. Samples are then intended to return to Victory for assessment; the Nov. 11 announcement gives no firm date for that return.
