3 things that are concerning. 1) they only sampled for La, Ce, Y...

3 things that are concerning.

1) they only sampled for La, Ce, Y which are 3 of the lowest value lathanides.
2) titling the announcement stating 'Strong Ionic clays' is extremely misleading.
3) The intercepts are too thin for the depth to be economical viable (even if they did sample the other elements and even if it was ionic)

You can only test an ionic bond by performing a leach test with a neutral pH. Period.

Companies which are stating these project to be ionic are either;
Oblivious to the nature as to what constitutes an ionic clay or deliberating stretching in a direction without supporting evidence.

SF2TH