As far as I'm aware they had also shopped around for process tech for the deposit at Montviel and didn't like what was on offer.
I'm going to speculate here and say that because most of the worlds rare earths processing was done/is done in China. and environmental restrictions (past) being more lenient there, they were able to get away with a more toxic approach. Check why Lynas chose Malaysia for its process though through a show of good will? They now have a process facility just out of Kalgoorlie to process the REE before it's sent to Malaysia or US.
GeoMega went their own way on this which I think is great and decided they could improve the process at least for their own deposit and design their own process methods which they can also on sell to MTM. Like giving them the printer and selling them the inks.
There was also never a PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment) done by GeoMega as they never wanted to do one with the tech offered. So they decided to wait until they have developed the tech.
To get a Jorc will prob take a good part of two years in this area but how longs a piece of string? In that time will the tech be ready? Will a larger player be waiting?
MTM Price at posting:
11.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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