The best reason not to DSO would be if your crystal ball could...

The best reason not to DSO would be if your crystal ball could tell you exactly were lithium prices are going. There are basically five pricing zone's:

• Extremely high and practically any proposed operation would be profitable at these prices
• Very high and Spod + DSO both work very well
• Modest and Spod still works well but DSO is getting marginal (Balanced supply/demand including DSO)
• Low where Spod still works but DSO is unprofitable (balanced supply with no DSO contribution)
• Super-low and neither Spod or DSO will provide a profit unless super-efficient (over-supply, high cost concentration without an enforceable floor price may go into care and maintenance)

I note however that these price names reflect strong demand. In a mineral/metal with limited demand growth, the low category would be called normal because supply and demand are matched. Good projects make money, bad/less economic projects don't.

Lithium prices are currently at extremely high. There are three scenarios were you wouldn't do DSO:
1. If you couldn't find a confirmed buyer and were going to be reliant on DSO spot market sales as a start-up operation (with limited cash reserves). Core's DSO auction indicated the buyers are there and at very good prices. RDT's commentary indicated the same thing. It's unclear if there are unique differences to Core's DSO ore vs others.

2. If you believed Goldman Suck's price forecasts with Hydroxide averaging $16k for 2023 before falling to $11k across 2024/2025 (Their May2022 report). At these prices you quickly transition from Extremely high to Low pricing. As noted by@EJA, capital is hard to find for new Copper projects so limited new supply occurs. Limited new supply would incidentally slow the EV revolution which may be GS's agenda with the backing of big oil (who will be a very valuable client).

3. If you knew with high certainty we were likely to stay in extremely high for an extended period, you may decide not to DSO any ore because the margins on conversion to a higher grade product would be better in the future than DSO margins now. A stable existing business might make this decision but it would be surprising for a start-up who's goal is to get into production and make some money for shareholders.

I'd suggest nobody's crystal ball is good enough to warrant the 3rd scenario.