Oh I clearly understand it, but I don't think you do. The average lithium company employee in Salta province earns between US$20-30k per year. Puna Mining had roughly 200 employees prior to C&M, and obviously the higher skilled workers are going to pull a higher salary, so let's be generous and pull the average up to US$40k per employee, per year (even though I think this is overkill).
US$40k per employee x 200 = US$8m per year. The nameplate for the plant is 2 ktpa, therefore:
US$8m / 2000 = Employee cost of US$4,000 per tonne
Even with that employee cost completely separated, AGY still has a viability cost of US$14k per tonne, which is double that of competitors. So we can stop blaming personnel costs for the high OPEX, that's just your assumption. Mine is that the lower grade has meant they've had to re-feed product through various circuits to achieve the required grade and consistency. It's just an assumption, but no less valid than yours. At least I can demonstrate (with numbers) that the employee costs certainly aren't the key factor for AGY's ridiculously high OPEX.
Now, let's (generously) assume that the workforce for the 10 ktpa expansion is only another 50 people:
250 x US$40k = $10m per year. Nameplate for the expansion is 12 ktpa, therefore:
US$10m / 250 = Employee cost of US$833 per tonne
That means that at best (remember I'm being generous here) there's about three grand to be saved in employee costs per tonne, if they can keep staff to only a 25% increase, for an operation 500% larger (unlikely).
Still, that only brings AGY's viability cost down to about US$15k per tonne, which is still right at the top of the cost curve, and about $4k above the break-even price for CATL's lepidolite mine. You would still need to trim production costs in half (potentially further) to get anywhere close to being competitive with the big boys like ALB, SQM and ALTM.
P.S - I'm glad that you've finally made some peace with it; finally acknowledging that you're underwater here. Based on you posting history, I think you're minimising your losses, or you've grossly exaggerated the scale of your past buys. Either way, baby steps, right? We'll get there mate.......
(20min delay)