I think you are being a bit presumptive in saying "it isn't...

I think you are being a bit presumptive in saying "it isn't working" - unfortunately for new technologies it's par for the course to hit "teething issues" - THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT "ISN'T WORKING". Even where there is know technology (e.g commissioning a mine) it's pretty usual to get delays (see McNulty curves - HERE) - typically a new mine goes through a fraught period during commissioning. In the case of a new technology the risk is much higher and my reading is that all the issues have not been "go or no go" decisions but have been improvements which they would like to introduce to improve the performance (this will be a major parameter in a FID decision to proceed with the PLEF and also Cameco's desion to proceed with its 26% share option). It's always a delicate decision about when to draw a line under development and pass it on to the ultimate test (a bit like preparation for an examination). From what I can discern GLE (to date) have preferred to delay the test to incorporate significant improvements but have now decided to finalise that (they may of course also found "faults" that they are required to fix - e.g UF₆ leaks etc). The announcement about the 3rd laser having "improvement" is interesting - I would assume that these are either to improve the "duty cycle" (the fraction each laser pulse contributes to the continuous combined beam) and/or the "fluence" of the beam (how uniform it is across its diameter) or both. Clearly they consider that the first two lasers are good enough to pass the TRL/6 test - I guess the outstanding issues are more to do with the separator and/or the continuous operation of the rig (the previous test in 2011/13 were for a batch process).

Good to know that they have now (belatedly) decided to "bite the bullet" and get the independent expert in (this will be costing GLE money). From the Cameco quarterly we know that GLE spent about A$31m (about A$15m to Cameco & A$16m to SLX) in Q1/CY25 and that SLX had about A$82m cash & term deposits on 31/12/24. (SLX half yearly) This implies that SLX cash & term deposits on 31/3/25 is about A$62m (this is includes ~A$4m SLX Australian costs not attributable to their share of GLE). GLE expenses will now rise (since the independent assessor has now be called in) so SLX will now have a strong incentive to conclude the TRL/6 tests by EoY since at the current cash run rate SLX will be getting low on cash & term deposits by 31/12/25 and will no doubt need to raise more cash (either from Cameco, loan, US government or shareholders) around this deadline. Let's hope we get more reports on progress in the meantime (I don't like words such as "imminent" (21/2/25 presentation) which we now learn implied around 2 months more).