"Getting up to speed with reality" means seeing this for what it...

"Getting up to speed with reality" means seeing this for what it is and what it isn't. It's not a rock crushing circuit to send 5.5% spod to China for processing to BG, nor a JORC resource using third party DLE to send LiCl to China for processing to BG, nor a multibillion dollar company producing 40-50% of its product to BG on its own. It's not a hopeful that pumps the market with walkaway sales agreements and fluff, and you can reread all of AGY's announcements alongside those of Lake, Galan et al if you want to compare apples.

One thing that it IS, is one of a handful (half a handful really) of new BG LiCO producers in the Americas. "12.5% of capacity" is seriously misleading if it suggests that the progress over the last year or so has been either continuous or has plateaued. It has been in dry dock for much or most of that time and ramp up is never linear, it is exponential.

To my memory, it was never going to go from 500 to 10,000 tpa and I don't know where you got that. Stage 1 pilot was 500t, Stage 2 was 2kt to expand the process and generate cash flow for Stage 3, originally 8kt to bring a TOTAL of 10kt but then brought up to 10kt for a total of 12ktpa, where we find ourselves now.

The 2ktpa plant "operating at 12.5% after years" is both incorrect and meaningless. Incorrect because commissioning began in April last year, meaningless because it's based on a sample of 17 days (minus 3 that weren't in operation at all) after months in dry dock. To say that Albrmarle's Silver Peak is running around 50% has substance because it has been consistently doing that for actual years. Puna's 12.5% is a glimpse at the ramp up stage, and is magnitudes higher than any two-week period since commissioning began. Increasing that eightfold is a horizontal fall from here.

I understand the frustration but I've only been greatly relieved over the last month. It just seems like people are venting now because the worst is actually over and everyone wants an arse to kick in. JZ and PA should be congratulated for bringing it to this stage, not made a scapegoat for our investment decisions. Name me one lithium producer that made more real progress since 2018.