There's a few possible reasons below:1. It creates an early...

There's a few possible reasons below:
1. It creates an early quoted mine start date - If DSO can happen in Nov/Dec but Spod shipping can't occur until say Jan/Feb then DSO shipping allows Core to claim its in production at an earlier date. Depending on the words in the off-take contracts, being in production a couple of months earlier may mean existing off-take contracts end a couple of months earlier and can be renewed without any discount to spot a few months earlier. This may however also be all about being in production in 2022 for ego or performance benefit reasons.

2. Like the business case around fines, this could be material that Core's processes will concentrate but only with a low recovery rate while a purchaser has plant that will concentrate it effectively. Say for instance there is a sub-group of material that has a 40% recovery rate through DMS. 1,000t at 1.4% would concentrate to 93t of SC6. At $6,000/t you would get $558k. If you could sell this 1.4% ore for $600/t then the 1,000t would yield $600k. One of the near coast African lithium operations has discussion about its P1 and P2 type ore. This sort of low recovery rate issue exists around its P2 fine grain type spod where recovery rates are very low. I haven't however seen any P1/P2 references re Core.

3. It may just be a poorly worded reference to fines and other sub 5.8% grade material from before commissioning is complete. If its product that is not Spod and its shipped then its DSO.

4. If for the foreseeable future mining volumes were stronger than what the DMS could process, DSO may make sense. The revenue per ton of ore mined is less than under processing it to Spod, but the DMS throughput may be at capacity for the immediate future. Given the extremely high current prices, DSO may still be more than expectations of spod prices in a few years time when spare capacity exists in the DMS to catch up with mined volumes. The choice is have an unprocessed stockpile for several years or sell as DSO now. While DSO realises less per processed ton now its incremental revenue. It could also still be more than a forward estimate of Spod (if the view was held that spod prices will fall in the future). For example, 1,000t @ 1.4% concentrated to 5.8% with a 71.7% recovery rate is 173t. Assume the DSO sale was $600k. What if spod price estimates were under $3,500 when DSO capacity was forecast to finally exist? DSO now yields more than selling as Spod in a few years at $3,000/t.