Looking at the PFS It appears most of the capital cost is...

Looking at the PFS It appears most of the capital cost is getting the brine to surface. Which would make EMP's higher grade project look a bit more attractive.

Resource comparison
AZL: 6.3 Mt @ 106 mg/L (including 3.4 Mt @ 127mg/L and higher grade zone 600 kt @ 159 mg/L)
EMP: 1.15 Mt @ 143 mg/L (including higher grade zone 500 kt @ 198 mg/L)

But the pilot plant (both ILiAD) results tell a different story

Pilot Plant results
AZL: Feed 96 mg/L -> concentrated eluent 1223 mg/L (13 x concentration)
EMP: Feed 190 mg/L -> concentrated eluent 1430 mg/L (7.5 x concentration)

https://resourceworld.com/emp-lithium-test-results-exceed-expectations-ceo-says/

I wonder why such a disparity in results?

EMP Metals, like AZL plan to "ship the highly concentrated eluent to a third party for refinement into battery grade lithium carbonate"

Good short video on the EMP project with relevance to other SK players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtKWCLAuTmY