MTM Critical Metals Secures $50M to Power Texas FJH Facility Rollout

MTM Critical Metals (ASX: MTM) has secured a pivotal $50 million capital injection through a heavily oversubscribed institutional placement, setting the stage for commercial deployment of its proprietary Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology in the United States.

Priced at $0.55 per share, the placement was struck at an 11% premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP), underscoring strong institutional conviction in MTM’s transition from tech validation to industrial execution. A leading Australian institution anchored the raise, alongside participation from long-only domestic and offshore funds.

“The level of institutional support we’ve received is a clear endorsement of our progress and ambition,” said Managing Director and CEO Michael Walshe. “We’re now positioned to execute decisively, both on technology delivery and our broader U.S. expansion strategy.”

With the capital secured, MTM is zeroing in on its flagship FJH facility in Chambers County, Texas.

The FJH process applies electrical current to a sample, heating the material to temperatures often exceeding 3,000 degrees Celsius in milliseconds. This flashing process permits fast and efficient recoveries of precious materials from a wide variety of feedstock, ranging from e-waste to mine ores and tailings.

Commissioning of the 1 tonne-per-day plant remains on schedule for late 2025.

Roughly 40% of the placement proceeds will support site acquisition and infrastructure build-out at the Texas site, while 25% will go toward constructing the FJH systems themselves. Feedstock procurement and logistics will receive approximately 15%, and the remaining funds will be split evenly between team expansion and working capital needs.

The project blueprint is structured for scalability, with the Texas site already permitted and equipped to support additional modular metal recovery units. MTM is preparing groundwork for up to four further operational sites across the U.S.

Earlier this year, MTM successfully validated its production-scale “crucible,” a key component of the FJH platform. The upsized unit achieved heat transfer performance on par with earlier prototypes, significantly reducing risk in scaling from lab bench to industrial output.

Walshe described the validation as a “major technical milestone” and noted that early results suggest higher-than-expected throughput potential for each processing module. This enhances the commercial case for a modular, replicable plant design that can be expanded with relatively low incremental capital costs.

From Pilot to Production

MTM is rapidly progressing from concept to commercial delivery. With over 1,000 tonnes per annum of e-waste secured from U.S. recycling partners, and offtake negotiations underway for metals such as gallium and germanium, the company is building a supply chain that supports near-term revenue generation.

The FJH technology, developed at Rice University and exclusively licensed to MTM, is attracting interest for its ability to efficiently recover critical and precious metals using a rapid electrothermal process. This aligns with U.S. strategic goals to build secure, domestic supply chains for critical materials, and MTM is actively pursuing opportunities under various federal funding programs to support this mission.

With the balance sheet reinforced and technical groundwork complete, MTM appears ready to make the leap from development-stage hopeful to industrial technology contender on U.S. soil. For investors tracking the race to localise critical metals processing, MTM is shaping up as one to watch.