Critical Metals Corp. opens Romanian subsidiary ahead of planned JV with Nuclearelectrica

The company plans to process in Romania roughly half of the ore produced by its Tanbreez mining project in Greenland. According to Economedia.ro, the investor behind CRML is controversial Romanian-born businessman Frank Timiș, while the Tanbreez project has also attracted scrutiny over its technical and economic feasibility.

Critical Metals Romania was registered on August 27, 2026, is headquartered in Bucharest and has share capital of RON 5,000 (nearly EUR 1,000).

Critical Metals and FPCU Feldioara signed a non-binding Term Sheet in December 2025 to assess the possibility of establishing a 50%-50% joint venture to develop and build a rare metals processing facility in Romania.

Nuclearelectrica said in September that no decision had been made regarding the proposed cooperation with Critical Metals and that the pre-feasibility study prepared by the US company was still undergoing technical and economic evaluation. The state-owned company also said that no funds had been allocated or spent on the project.

The December 2025 agreement is non-binding and is intended to assess the technical and commercial basis for a possible joint venture. In a document submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Nuclearelectrica said the potential vehicle would be owned 50% by FPCU Feldioara and 50% by Critical Metals and would be responsible for developing and potentially building the rare metals processing plant.

Critical Metals announced in September that it had developed a technology to extract rare metals from Tanbreez ore, which the company describes as a key obstacle to developing the project. Its refinery study estimates annual refinery revenue of USD 1.8-2.2 billion.

Critical Metals stressed that these are preliminary modelling figures and are subject to further engineering work, metallurgical testing, market conditions, permitting and a final investment decision, which has not yet been made.

The project has also attracted critical assessments. A report by Ningi Research, cited by Economedia.ro, describes Critical Metals Corp. as a promotional vehicle and questions the technical and economic assumptions underlying both the Tanbreez and Wolfsberg projects.

According to the Ningi report, the valuation of Tanbreez relies on an economic model that the researchers consider fundamentally flawed, including assumptions about end-product revenues and processing costs.