Of course it depends on what you mean by 'looks very similar', I think that is fair that they look similar in many regards, but where they differ looks to be the met work - things could of course change, I'm just going on the reports I've read.
I agree that generally rare earth extraction of ionic clay deposits is cheaper in capex and opex than hard rock, however in this case I'm not sure how specifically relevant to the context of my original post that is.
My take is charliemark was asking whether, given the reports I shared snippets of, the rare earths couldnt be extracted cheaply (in comparison to other ionic clay resources), given the need for HCL. To which I would agree. The rare earth grades of the Salazar deposit from what I've seen are very very good, it's been a while but if I recall correctly I'm talking potentially twice that of IXR's Makuutu. There must be a reason the project never gained traction, yes some could say the private company couldn't raise funds, but IMO it may be the not so favourable met work.
Here is a table sf2th shared which I find valuable:
I don't believe there are any operating mines extracting using HCL. In what I shared you can see there were basically no extractions from Ammonium Sulphate.
This is just my interpretation of those previous reports.
