Another issue is what state of repair (or disrepair) the POS...

Another issue is what state of repair (or disrepair) the POS plant is in. It might be toast and thats why MIN are walking away.

The possibility that a DMS plant is an optimal part of the flowsheet isn't a huge issue if some deposits are also found in Jaegermeister. Assume enough lithium is found to mean 2.5Mtpa is sensible processing rate. A big factor pulling down overall DMS recovery rates is crushing fines that have a 0% recovery rate. In worst case scenarios like Core experienced fines can be over 30%. If crushing fines were 20% then 2.0Mt would pass the entry screens for the DMS and 0.5Mt would be DMS fines for flotation.

If the DMS only part of the flow sheet was recovering 50%, there could also be close to 0.5Mt of middlings. There two alone would create a 1.0Mt supply for a flotation plant even if DMS works fairly well. A 1.2Mt plant is still well used even with a DMS plant at the front end.