The other thing that newcomers should be aware of when comparing BRINE to HARD ROCK resource size is the renewable nature of the brine resource. With hard rock once you have dug it out - that's it. With brine, you keep sucking and it is replenished from the surrounding salar; it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Quote from the JORC announcement (19 June 2018)...
"Resource takes no account of recharge to the upper-most fractured halite aquifer, which is a modifying factor that may increase brine-recovery from this unit"
So, while the measured resource size is 207,957 tonnes, it's actually much bigger due to recharge. The reason it isn't taken into account is because they can't say for sure what the quality of the incoming brine will be with any certainty or how quickly it will recharge. JORC is based on what has been measured and isn't allowed to take into account assumptions.
However, one of the reasons Pablo chose the Rincon site is that it is known for the homogeneity of its brines (i.e. consistent chemical composition). One can therefore assume that incoming brines (flowing in from the surrounding salar as they pump out) is likely to be the same.
Against this is the flow rate (hydrology report). The porosity of the ground influences the speed of replenishment.
Putting all this together...
1. JORC for brine operations is a rough guide only and vastly understates the size of the resource when compared to hard rock.
2. JORC is a measured resource size for company valuation purposes and isn't necessarily a reliable indicator of true size (i.e. how much Lithium can be produced).
3. For one's own comparison (for individual investment decision making) IMHO you can assume that AGY's current resource is good for at least 500,000 tonnes.
This is probably one of the reasons why there is a fair distance between brine operations on the salar (they don't want to be sucking each other's resource). There has been talk of governments limiting the amount of brine that can be sucked to just what sits beneath a mining company's land holding. This is likely a long way off and would be highly impractical to implement.
(20min delay)