News: LYC Get cracking: Lynas scouts for rare earths plant to meet Malaysian demands, page-16

"How much to run the plant, energy for the kilns, and the price of sulphuric acid in the outback?"

Jantimont you might like to research other sulfuric acid intense operations, for example, KRR who are far far more remote than Kalgoorlie and have a vanadium resource with enough reserves to last the next 1000 years at 10 times the current world consumption. The trick is to import sulfur and burn the sulfur to produce sulfur trioxide which then is mixed with water, under controlled conditions, to produce sulfuric acid. The reaction is exothermic so there may even be enought excess energy to power/heat the kilns or produce electric power to power the operation. Other mines which mine sulfide ore and need sulfuric acid simply burn this ore to produce sulfur trioxide and then sulfuric acid. A well established process in many parts of the world. So LYC may not need to bring sulfuric acid to its leach plant but rather make it on site.