RE:RE:RE:RE:Bidding WarBasically Pip there are two different RE industries, the real industry which basically consists of the Chinese Big 6 + Shenghe + Lynas, then there is the investment mkt "industry" staffed by "experts" & VC's & mktg guys like Jim, none of which have produced anything in over a decade.
There is no singular separation holy grail simply because it needs to be matched to a feedstock, and the most cost effective way to process that feedstock, and that does NOT mean the cheapest process but the maximum value that can be added at the optimum cost.
That very much involves understanding what products can be produced from a given feedstock then finding the customers who see value in the products, then designing your process to produce those products in the most cost effective manner.
All the time the primary focus is running the NdPr/NdO separation & finishing as effeciently as possible. Better analysts have constantly overestimated Lynas COP because they haven't understood the impact of value adding secondary products basically within the process, now Lynas have 16 approved products and others in development the analysts are catching on.
No "RE company" will ever be anything without a customer base, and not simply for the magnet metals, so no company will ever have the "perfect" separation system without matching its feedstock to a customer base.
Note, the investment mkt "RE industry" collectively has NO customers other than a few Chinese MOU's, certainly nothing of consequence in over a decade, This is why Trump's latest $800M slush fund is such a waste, appears to be no effort to create a downstream process chain to turn REO into product and a customer base.