RE:So what 3rd party tech is so good E3 drops own tech?The finish line is still 30 miles away. Ultimately, they're not a DLE tech company. They're a lithium extraction and processing company. If they were a DLE company, they wouldn't have had to buy their resource and royalty and worry about permitting. The only question is how this affects project economics. Most likely, it was the fastest and most economic way to get to production.
With proprietary tech, you have to build it, you have to maintain it, get your own custom parts for maintenance, hire engineers and technicians to maintain it, etc. Basically a whole line of effort on it's own.
They're focused on the implentation and getting that first commercial plant up. If you don't have the cash to build your own plant, probably not the best idea to fund an entire ancillary line of effort that doesn't DIRECTLY serve that objective.
I say hire it out for less cost, and then, 5-10 yrs later when you've got multiple plants and are profitable. Build your own tech and then move for cost optimization.
But right now? Pull some lithium out of the ground and start making profits. 3rd-party DLE is the fastest way.