Problems of 1st gen producers are technical & managerial rather than commercial & financial, page-40

Agree with a lot in your post ... however, re: water. PLS have advised that they are looking to upgrade the circuits and will potentially split water treatment circuits for the HSM and floatation circuits (see Details re the revised Stage 2 plans) as part of the project to improve throughput, recoveries and costs. This is likely to enable additives to be optimised separately for each (and likely reduce additive costs as well as separation performance) but it could conceivably be to resolve other issues too. I haven’t gone back to the Ann’s for details so may be more there than I can recall.