It looks like this Scoping Study (PEA) is really cooked. My calculations get their current basket price (pre-discounted payability for carbonates) is around US$28.31/kg; where as this Scoping Study appears to use Net Smelter Return of US$/t 49.20, which I get is a hefty US$105.38/kg. Or calculating simply, their US$474M in revenue divided by their 4,498t annual production comes to US$105.38/kg in forecast revenue.
Their opex at 1,510ppm is US$13.10/t, which comes to US$28/kg. For my personal assessment, they look uneconomic, to me; particularly if discounting their revenues by a generous 20%. To add, their recoveries appear to me 42% for Pr-ND and 44%-45% for Dy-Tb.
I doubt the scale of plant (their 9.6Mt ROM vs MEI's 5.0Mt ROM) will make a difference to operating costs. Since MEI over 10 years has just over double the grade, at best halve the MEI operating costs, which comes to US$14/kg.
Their CAPEX is a whopping $576M, with what appears to be an addition $106M in sustaining capital ($6m pa). Therefore, proportionally, a 5MTpa plant would be $300M. However, you would add another 20% reduced scale, thus $360M.
(20min delay)