I think you are right that the setups are different operations....

I think you are right that the setups are different operations. I also think that is the very resson they are not concentrating resources on one or the other.
Because of 'long' lead times involved in brine projects it doesn't necessarily speed up the path to production by simply throwing a bit more money at it.
The same can be said for the hard rock project.
You still need to design a plan of attack to reach the most resource for the smallest overall cost and greatest overall gains, which creates limits on the amount of labour and equipment.
The main trick is to have enough funds to do both and there are a sufficient number of people who are employed to make sure this is the case.