Critical Metals’ eudialyte refinery in Romania: flowsheet and economics for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Critical Metals plans a $1.85 billion refinery in Romania capable of processing up to 100,000 tonnes per year of eudialyte concentrate from its Tanbreez project in Greenland, using a patent-pending mixed-acid leach that dissolves over 99% of the mineral and recovers 19 ultra-high-purity rare earth and critical metal products. Current modelling forecasts about 27,943 tonnes per year of chloride salts and related products plus 25,670 tonnes per year of high-purity SiO2, with silica by-product revenues alone estimated at roughly $600 million annually. The flowsheet targets tailings of only ~1% of feed and includes production of 50–70 tpa of high-purity hafnium metal and 20–30 tpa hafnium chloride, with projected NPV10 of $4.5 billion, 55% IRR and a two-year payback.
Technical Brief
- Multistage mixed-acid leach at elevated temperature is used to prevent eudialyte forming unfilterable silica gel.
- Process flowsheet includes cascading recovery stages to sequentially produce high-purity rare earth salts and metals.
- Silicate recovery system is modelled to generate US$400–600 million/year from SiO2 plus avoided acid consumption.
- Tailings are targeted at ~1% of feed tonnage by recovering silica and potentially alumina, iron and copper.
- Key value drivers in the product mix are SiO2, NbCl5, DyCl3, TaCl5 and hafnium products.
- Refinery is structured as a Romanian joint venture receiving 50% of Tanbreez concentrate under an existing term sheet.
- Location in EU/NATO-member Romania is explicitly aimed at securing a Western rare earth and critical metals supply chain.
Our Take
Critical Metals’ plan to route up to 50% of Tanbreez concentrate to a Romania refinery sits alongside its 15‑year offtake with REalloys for up to 15% of output, signalling that the Greenland asset is being carved up into multiple downstream channels rather than a single anchor customer.
The projected 50–70 tpa of high‑purity hafnium metal and 20–30 tpa of hafnium chloride from the Romania facility would position CRML unusually far up the value chain among rare earth players in our database, which mostly stop at mixed REE or magnet-grade oxides.
With a modelled NPV10 of US$4.5 billion and IRR of 55% on US$1.85 billion capex, this Romania refinery is one of the more aggressive rare earth/critical metal processing proposals in our coverage, implying strong sensitivity to execution risk on the patent‑pending eudialyte flowsheet and long-term pricing for zirconium, hafnium and heavy REEs.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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