RE:Dear Bob, Can you please answer a question?No idea what you're talking about with 90%. MP has been separating NdPr at required purity, 131 tons in Q1 2024. Ramp up in separation behind schedule, so continued shipping some concentrate to China rather than separating it all at Mountain Pass. Low REO prices have contributed to slow ramp. MP has been concentrating all mined ore, separating some, maybe stockpiling some, and sending some concentrate to China.
As for demo plant doing Dy at 99.9% purity, can you supply link/time of such claim? I'm not sure we have evidence yet that demo plant has separated any Dy. There were vague statements to the effect of expecting to produce a few kg of separated Dy this summer. There was a statement a while back of separating rare earths into 2 groups, one group of all REEs heavier than Dy, and the other group being La to Dy. By itself, that level of separation is essentially useless, and means that all of La to Dy are still clumped together - maybe that's milestone 2 of DOD? Need to actually separate Dy from everything else to be a useful accomplishment, which I thought Ryan was stating was still in the future.
I believe Ryan often uses the "aspirational" present tense, describing what sounds like a current capability, when it is actually his hope/claim/expectation, or whatever, of what RSX will eventually be able to do.