Oh Gosh, let me help. -Omitting key information - You're right I...

Oh Gosh, let me help.

-Omitting key information -
You're right I did. But then again LIT are very apt at omitting information too...
Not only was the recovery low, the process conditions were such that the equipment failed. You are only as good as your last result and that, for LIT and Sileach of spodumene, is 63-72% Extraction (not recovery).

Anything other than that is aspirational.

-Engineering April-
Its now May. There will be no plant. Not this year. Not the next.

-EMH-
Unfortunate, yes. However, LPD and the board have a clear path and methodology to be in production by 2020 and LPD do not need EMH for this. You may also like to note that EMH's process route is unproven, more expensive and achieves a lower recovery. Other elements at play in this decision.

-Lithium grades-
Lepidolite is not ⅕ the grade of spodumene as you suggest. Lepidolite grades as high as 7%Li2O while spodumene as high as 8%Li2O. However it is more common that Lepidolite grades 4% and spodumene as 6.5%. So a more correct statement would be You have to process about 30% more mica than spodumene to get the same amount of Li2CO3. You may want to check though, LIT plan to process low grade spodumene wastes through Sileach (as marketed) and as such this comparison is irrelevant.
http://www.webmineral.com/data/Lepidolite.shtml#.WRBhy7Fh2jQ
http://webmineral.com/data/Spodumene.shtml#.WRBiArFh2jQ

-micas will run quite a way behind-
Maybe, but LPD intend to change this. The key is being the lowest cost producer and not just flavour of the month.

Good luck.