The ORE report is very confusing. There was a total of 5kt...

The ORE report is very confusing.
There was a total of 5kt produced in six months.
There were 2850t sold as technical grade.
2850t sold for $10600/t
The rest was sold as battery grade.
5000t- 2850t=2150t.
2150t was battery grade. Sold for $14600/t.

Production is 57:43 technical to battery grade.

Cash achieved for the two  grades is 50:50.

The average price for the two grades was $12k/t.

The average price was due to selling lower grade. If the company sold all at battery grade the average would remain $14600/t.

Technical grade is a result of low quality lithium deposit.
*There are other minerals in the deposit that can't be removed.
*The knowledge is not there to seperate the the lithium from the brine or hard rock to a more pure state.
* The cost is too high to seperate the lithium, reducing the profit margin to be financially viable.

Technical grade is second hand grade when you are not able to achieve top grade.

Hydroxide and carbonate can be made from brine or hard rock.
Brine is salt water. Hard rock is minerals trapped in earth.

Spodumene is a concentrate.
Can be any percentage. Its the cost evolved to extract. DSO can vary 0.1%- 2% plus lithium/t. A random tonne can have any percentage.
5% or 6% only means there are 5kg or 6kg of lithiun in every 100kg of earth delivered.
5% Spodumene can have a higher purity of lithium than 6%.
The purity and concentration of lithium minerals determine the contract price.
Wmt concentrate contains water.
Dmt  is a higher concerntrate. Not paying for water.
The purity determine the final use.
99.5%  carbonate can be technical grade.
99.5% plus 0.5% acceptable impurities make battery grade. Welcome to the complexity.

For comparison
24k gold- bat. hydroxide.High energy dense
22k gold- bat. carbonate. less energy dense

18k and lower gold- technical carbonate. Use in Anything but battery.