On the first question it’s been a while so haven’t really followed too closely, but once the salars come online depending on the agreements they have in place they really will have the ability to set the price to whatever they want (as they have been doing for past 3-4 decades). These hard rock mines are making serious money on the fact that the big 3/4 missed the boat (somehow) on the lithium/ev boom. I reckon they will be they will set production/prices to a point just below the number where hard rock equivalents are commercial.
With regard to opening the market I personally don’t think so. If the market didn’t have big players in it then yes it probably would have by now. That being said there were/are a lot of mid stage converters coming online that are disrupting the old guard and taking whatever is out there and not being secretive on pricing so maybe?
I remember looking at that project back in the day and couldn’t make the numbers work. Not sure if much has changed.
Firstly it’s an underground mine which is inherently much higher risk/cost compared to open cut.
Second logistically it’s a world away from customers (Asia etc)
Again if they had kicked it off back when, and were in production now they could have locked in some good terms from the starved customers and maybe set themselves up as a player, unfortunately I think they have missed the boat.
I'd that they don't have any measured resources on their list, it's half inferred and half indicated. So moderate uncertainty about everything down there.
With regard to opening the market I personally don’t think so. If the market didn’t have big players in it then yes it probably would have by now. That being said there were/are a lot of mid stage converters coming online that are disrupting the old guard and taking whatever is out there and not being secretive on pricing so maybe?