Good comparison, yes it all matters to overall economics. A few...

Good comparison, yes it all matters to overall economics. A few 3m intercepts of 10,000ppm hardly rates as mattering though especially when the MREO wasn't particularly high meaning it was probably more or less worthless La in those MEI intercepts you noted, Needs a solid scale tonnage above 3,000 ppm. Even better if there are some >4,000 ppm or >5,000 ppm zones supplemented by the "low grade" 1,000 ppm and above material.

IMHO say 150-200 Mt additional area size doesn't matter too much, only the amount of high grade zones you can find or add by having additional land does as you've already got 30-40 year mine life at a 5Mt scale by that point.

Note that the Dy and Tb recoveries for VMM are still better than the MEI "upgraded" results. So I think it's impossible to argue that VMM is going toe to toe with MEI on the recoveries.

Both MEI and VMM have world class resources. Yes they're not identical but they're pretty damn close compared to any other deposit globally as they're geologically part of the same resource.

As a general note (not saying you're doing it) I don't really get the bickering between the two camps, both achieving solid results is a positive for both. Yes they're competitors but down the track it may make sense for JV for downstream or merge the two entities for one grand world-class deposit also either if triggered by VMM and MEI or a potential suitor for both.