And in that 20 odd years (closer to 15 but whatever) the company...

And in that 20 odd years (closer to 15 but whatever) the company has developed a process for producing an ndpr oxide (a commodity) rather than just digging up a mixed rare earth carbonate (not a commodity) to sell to China. Furthermore they have secured the intellectual property behind it (in my view a significantly overlooked and undervalued asset in itself). I am glad the company put the decade of work in to do so as it is now a significantly improved value proposition and the economics have changed accordingly. Transforming yourself from an ore miner to commodity producer who mines there own ore takes time and I reckon a decade is about par.