Ann: Quarterly Activities and Cash Flow Report, page-156

"I think you might be comparing the production of carbonate (a finished product) to the production of spodumene concentrate (an intermediate product)."

Yes - but worth bearing in mind although they're different stage products, from the company's perspective that is their finished product. And aside from Galan, all other brine operators I'm aware of aim to produce a carbonate end product.

So: from my armchair view, from the moment you begin extraction (whether pumping a brine, or digging an ore) through to when you've processed your finished product, producing spodumene concentrate seems much less complex than producing battery-grade carbonate. The fact that very low-quality hard rock deposits like Finiss and NAL were able to produce 5.3% spodumene concentrate in relatively short timeframes has helped change my view on this.

By the way - in your table you note that MIN's proven vs probable is 0%. Their lithium operations are very poor, as I recall they're producing around a 4% product. It's not really one I'd stand up and compare, and nor is LTR given they're not producing yet.