{"id":30316,"date":"2026-02-16T12:17:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&p=30316"},"modified":"2026-02-16T12:17:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:17:47","slug":"strategic-partnership-to-further-establish-australia-as-a-rare-earth-leader","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/strategic-partnership-to-further-establish-australia-as-a-rare-earth-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategic partnership to further establish Australia as a rare earth leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Âé¶¹Ö±²¥ and Victory Metals have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of a major rare earth project, which will help supply Australia with the materials needed for clean energy technologies, electric vehicles, advanced electronics and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the partnership, Victory will collaborate with the Australian Government-backed, Curtin-led Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer<\/a> initiative to work on Victory\u2019s North Stanmore Heavy Rare Earth Element (HREE) Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based near Cue in Western Australia, the HREE project will be Australia\u2019s biggest clay-hosted heavy rare earth resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The partnership will see Curtin contribute specialist staff with expertise in water management, recycling and recovery, metallurgy and more as the project advances toward commercial production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will work alongside Victory\u2019s technical team, offering support with the studies required to advance the HREE project toward commercial production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parties will also co-develop a pilot plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of Curtin\u2019s Western Australian School of Mines, John Curtin Distinguished Professor Mark Buntine<\/a>, said the partnership reflected Curtin\u2019s leadership in critical minerals and advanced processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCurtin is a national leader in minerals processing, hydrometallurgy and sustainable resource technologies, with advanced facilities and a strong track record of translating research into industry outcomes,\u201d Professor Buntine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are proud to lead the technical development of this nationally significant project, bringing together our world-class expertise with Victory Metals\u2019 exceptional North Stanmore rare earth resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy working closely with Victory\u2019s technical team, we aim to optimise systems in place and help drive the project toward commercial production to strengthen Australia\u2019s critical minerals supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victory Metals Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Brendan Clark said the partnership combined an exceptional resource with world-class research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVictory, Curtin and the Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer create an unbeatable industry-academia powerhouse,\u201d Mr Clark said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis partnership delivers massive technical momentum, positions us to lead Australia\u2019s heavy rare earth supply chain and puts sustainable production firmly within reach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WA Mines and Petroleum Minister David Michael said the partnership would bring significant benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am excited to see an innovative, ambitious company like Victory Metals teaming up with an Australia\u2019s leading mining-focused tertiary institution, Curtin\u2019s WA School of Mines, to accelerate the development of an important rare earths project in WA,\u201d Mr Michael said.

\u201cThis is the type of partnership that will help the State and Australia position itself as a leader in the production and processing or rare earth elements which are so critical in industries such as wind turbines, electric vehicles and medical applications.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Âé¶¹Ö±²¥ and Victory Metals have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4457,"featured_media":30317,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":3,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,112,284],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-30316","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community","category-industry-and-partnerships","category-science-and-engineering"],"acf":{"experts":false,"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[22646,24388]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_7635-1000x1080.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Jeremic","display_name":"Samuel Jeremic"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/30316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/30316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30316"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=30316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}