Ann: Thick High Grade Rare Earth Element Results, page-12

Rare earths extraction usually requires significant capex, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the processing plants are often bespoke, which makes commissioning very difficult.

May I suggest you re-read the May 31 announcement that the deposit is ionic and the comments which were posted on it?

From page 2 of the May 31 announcement:
"REE extractions in these five samples were excellent, ranging from 40% to 75% of each of the permanent magnet REE (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb) and 48% to 71% of the total rare earths except cerium. It is significant that these results were obtained using ammonium sulfate at pH 4, which is similar to the conditions used in China for purely ionic adsorption clay type deposits. Some other clay-hosted REE deposits can require significantly more acid to achieve similar levels of REE extraction."

China dominates global production from similar deposits. It appears so far that ABX is not going to need much acid to extract the REE. This will make it easier to get environmental approvals. My understanding is that AR3 is going to have a problem with acid, which is made worse by the fact that their deposit is below good farmland. The ABX deposit is below marginal timber plantations. ABX has avoided valuable farmland and dairy country.

From the announcement above, page 1:
"ABx CEO, Mark Cooksey commented, “We’ve now delineated a channel of thick ionic adsorption clay REE which is good grade, shallow and proven to be easily processed. We await assay results from recent holes into 6 other large channels on the flanks of Deep Leads (see Figure 3). The potential size of REE mineralisation at Deep Leads and the Rubble Mound REE discovery 6 kms east of Deep Leads is becoming substantial."

6 other large channels - They have drilled enough holes now to start understanding the underground topography - the rare earths flow in channels (very slowly of course - on a geological time scale) and the great white hope is that if they follow the channels they will find a pool of REE trapped by hard rock.

As for removing overburden, that is expensive in itself. If there is a way to flush out and recover the REE, that's much cheaper.

GLTAH and DYOR!