Ann: Rincon 2,000tpa Li2CO3 Operations Update, page-12

It doesn't work like that.

If they wanted to they could just crank it up and produce a lot more than they are, but they're still getting all the equipment working properly.

Imagine building a new car. Not the 275,682nd car off a production line, but the first fully functional individual car of a new type after you've just made one concept prototype previously. You wouldn't just build it to the stage where it can barely move then continuously drive it while completing all the work of finishing the build and tweaking all the settings to fine tune it. You would have it in pieces in the work shop, assemble it, test it on the track, take it back to the workshop, change things, tweak thing, test it again, and so on. This would take months and the amount of kilometres your clock up on the track each week or month during this time is irrelevant. Your goal is not to clock up as many kilometres as possible until after the build and fine tuning are complete. You wouldn't measure your progress by how many kilometres you were clocking up on the track each week or month, you would measure it by how fast and efficient etc your performance on the track was and how much improvement you were making between each test drive. Once each test drive was complete you wouldn't be wanting to drive again until the next session in the workshop was complete, because that's your objective. You wouldn't sacrifice workshop time for test drive time, ever.

Our plant is the first commercial-scale plant of its kind. It's not yet fully tuned and set. Less production just means more tuning and tweaking, which is the job we currently need to complete. The only time volume of product is particularly relevant is after we commence nameplate production.