The global push for critical minerals has accelerated the development of projects reliant on novel or first-of-kind processing technologies. While geological potential may be well understood, uncertainty around metallurgical performance, scale-up reliability, and operating stability introduces significant technology risk into asset valuation. Investors increasingly evaluate such projects through a structured set of risk-mitigation signals that extend beyond conventional resource metrics. This paper proposes a three-pillar framework through which investors assess and price technology risk in emerging critical mineral assets. First, long-term pricing and market intelligence provide confidence that structural demand and sustained margins can support the additional uncertainty associated with new processing routes. Second, engineering validation and technical de-risking conducted by project owners including pilot testing, demonstration plants, and resolution of key process bottlenecks, serve as tangible indicators that scale-up challenges are understood and manageable. Third, owner capital participation and strategic alignment signal commitment and accountability, reducing perceived execution risk for external investors. By examining these pillars across recent critical minerals projects, the paper highlights how capital markets translate technical uncertainty into valuation outcomes and identifies emerging patterns in how technology risk is assessed in the sector’s next generation of projects.