The story is of course a bit more complex than thatYak all yu want but the hectorite issue is largely academic and maybe you are not an academic, I for sure am not one. Though I did manage through a bit a rigor at uni. So, great that you are so certain of yur facts, makes me feel good about the NSR I hold on the project, to have such conviction as to ecomonics. Perhaps yu should be on the advisory board to bat these issues away in an offical position.
Point is, yes, no hectorite, we knew that in feb 2016 or so we thought. Surface samples leached most of their lithium into distilled water, that was an early study Huston and myseft did as we started to our hands dirty in the early days, eveyone until then assumed hectrorite (yu mis spell it so so will I), but we showed otherwise.
But we were somewaht wrong as it truned out, but the bonus was some cash and stock from PE before we found out that we had somewhat of problem. Many say the PE adventure was a bad thing, but cash and cash fro selling their stock at 50 cents is maybe the lasting legacy of those times, money is money. We now have lots of time and good thing we got that money.
To the issue, the failure to know what we missed, surface samples leached like honey in hot water but subsurface samples did not. Thats what we learned once we drilled.
Why? No one has spent any GD time on that one. But, here is likely the why, weathering at surface changes the deal, duh. The problem is that the lithium at Dean and at Glory and at Noram and at Matica is all strongly electally bound in interlayered clay minerals, not bound in the crystal stricture of the clay like your GD hectorite but still tightly held. Makes little differnce in costs at the end of the day what we have vs your GD hectorite.
In both cases you have to force that lithium out, us with massive acid consumption and related effects beyond the scope of this screed, but important, them with heat. I was trying to suggest to the GD experts here that a combination of the two, catlaize the weathering with heat might be an answer but all I got back was that my NSR is very valuable.
All I want is the best, and I do not ever stop thinking and there is valuable info in this tirade and if it is 30 years being realized, GD fine with me.
So, it must be so calming to always be agreesively right, have the answers right in your arm pit to pull out and toss on the table, watch it though, that move to the pit exposes you to to things.
Bob