The word "boondoggle" comes to mind for that dam project (no pun...

The word "boondoggle" comes to mind for that dam project (no pun intended). The article also highlights how delays can impact profits in the short term, but we already are painfully aware of that.

The difference I see here is that (1) Rio had not started construction of the smelter and (2) Rio has numerous smelters around the world so they can easily cancel plans if it turns out one option is less profitable than another option.

In the case of Lynas, (1) the LAMP is already complete. In addition (2) LAMP seems to be a potentially profitable operation give world-wide shortage of sufficient REOs outside of China. So it seems quite likely that Lynas has been doing what it takes to make this work. An intractable impasse in negotiations over something like a long-term competitive power supply contract does not seem to be the type of problem issue facing Lynas, although for Rio that may have been a dealbreaker.

Furthermore, the Malaysian government has and continues to send positive signals that they feel the plants safety is adequate and that they want to proceed with running a world class rare earth processing facility that will benefit downstream industries within Malaysia.

Thanks for posting. This does not undermine my long term faith in what is going to happen with LAMP one single bit.