"forget" the 2ktpa plant when looking at NPV etc - it is merely...

"forget" the 2ktpa plant when looking at NPV etc - it is merely an interim step towards the actual "full-scale" commercial operation of 12ktpa (and possibly beyond).
Our PEA indicated 10ktpa for 16.5 yrs iirc, or 15ktpa for 11 years.
This was based on an estimated drainable brine volume that could produce about 245kt of Li2CO3 in total.
The associated NPVs presented there relied on (now very old) forecasts of pricing!

Our current plan afaik is to produce 2ktpa for about 2 years, while building a 10ktpa expansion, then to produce 12ktpa (or possibly even more).

Imo, "the market" has a hard-rock mentality, where "resource size is king", and imo many misunderstand the big difference between a typical mineral deposit or ore body, and a Li brine resource. The broader resource at Rincon is MUCH bigger than we have defined; we are drilling deeper to better define what is within our tenements (expected to be significantly more btw), and imo will simply buy more adjoining/nearby tenements if/when required. Vastly different to eg. an orebody where the equivalent would be "hoping" for extensions beyond boundaries that are probably already well-delineated... Our focus has been on the process; in Li brine, in our case at least, resource comes later.

All this leads to opportunity, imo, for people who can think for themselves and do their own analyses of what the business might look like as the project is developed.
For example, if you look at the various production/pricing scenarios in the PEA, iirc you will note that a price increase of $2500/t equates to circa $200M extra NPV.
Let that sink in, in light of current pricing and in combination with a resource that is doubled or tripled in size perhaps..?

DYOR!!