• Option to exclusively negotiate the rights to Flash Joule Heating technology developed by Rice University in Houston, USA.

  • Emerging metal processing and recycling technology.

  • Demonstrated potential to treat REE mineralisation and more efficiently recover critical metals from critical metal-rich recycling and waste streams.

Project Overview

‘FJH’ is a new processing and recycling technology that is currently in development to extract critical metals.

MTM Critical Metals Limited (ASX:MTM) (MTM or the Company) has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Flash Metals Pty Ltd (Flash), which holds an option to exclusively negotiate the licencing rights to an early-stage processing technology for REE and precious metals known as Flash Joule Heating (FJH), which has been developed by researchers at Rice University in the USA.

FJH is a new processing and recycling technology being developed to extract critical metals like REE, nickel, cobalt and lithium from natural mineralisation and from waste material including lithium ion batteries, eWaste, Coal Fly Ash (CFA) produced by coal-fired power stations or “red mud” derived from bauxite processing in the aluminium industry.

The patented FJH process technology is licensed via Professor James Tour and Rice University in Houston, USA and has been proven at a laboratory-scale.  KnightHawk Engineering in Houston has independently verified Rice University’s work to date. The technology involves the rapid and intense heating of material to volatilise metals directly or to make them more amenable to extraction with conventional acid leaching.  Test work demonstrates that FJH is scalable and has potential to both directly recover critical metals and also to make materials more amenable to metal recovery through conventional acid leaching methods.

FJH has already been shown to be an effective method for producing high-value graphene materials from carbon-based materials, including waste streams.  This technology is currently being commercialised by Universal Matter Inc.

Flash Joule Heating Technology by Rice Lab.

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