+NdPr, page-13

The skills and equipment of the LAMP are suited to separations. Smelting is an entirely different operation.

To compare prices of Nd oxide and metal, you have to divide the price of the oxide by its fractional content of metal, which is ~288/336 or 2Nd/Nd2O3 and equal ~0.857.

So if Lynas is getting RMB385/kg for their 99.9% oxide, then the metal in it is being sold to the smelter at 385/0.857=RMB449/kg. That's the number you compare.

Since the smelter has to pay for copious electricity, he'll charge maybe RMB500/kg for the 99.9% metal he produces, assuming he hasn't dirtied it. Or whatever. I don't know what kind of furnaces they used, but it's not complicated to turn oxides into metal. It's basically the same for all base metals.

The smelter does not have the ability to purify (other than driving off the oxygen, obviously); wherever purity is important, the LAMP earns the big value-add, not the smelter.