Nonetheless, it took them 20 years (and yes the macro factors...

Nonetheless, it took them 20 years (and yes the macro factors were different then). I'm not saying brine production will take as long as it took ORE, but by the time some of these new South American brine projects develop roads, infrastructure, test pilot ponds, train workers (which by the way is extremely hard because the their very few people with the skills to train new workers...ask yourself why LAC partnered with SQM...for this very reason). It may not take 20 years but most brine projects have taken extremely long at least 5 years to reach production(this includes SQM, ALB, and etc, and even so, major companies like ALB and SQM are experiencing delays with expansion and this includes, but not limited to royalty negotiations...it would be naive to assume that other countries won't eventually try to nationalise or ask for significant royalties once their brine projects are developed)

PLS might have taken 3 years, but they are developing their mine and production is set to start Q2 2018, and IMO PLS is poised expand and produce more than the GXY since JB and SDV will not start producing until 2020. Yes GXY has Mt. Cat, but the quality and the size just don't compare with that of PLS, even though it will produce GXY cash flow. So I think the lower valuations for GXY are justified as a result.

I also think that PLS will have significantly easier time producing 5-10 MTPA in one location by 2020 than GXY will have managing 3 different mines in 3 different locations.