Storm Clouds, page-22

Not discredit, rather point out farcical things like calling the demo plant a demo plant when it has demonstrated nothing prior to the DFS other than the ability to pump dry a pit and produce some great aerial photos to help raise cash.
KLL demonstarted on a large scale an evaporation sequence using in-situ brine, SO4 aren't even using in-situ brine but brine at a concentration that is someway into the sequence. This wouldn't stand up in most areas of science. Arguably this demo plant is of no more use than the small scale trials done by every competitor.
If the pond construction is based on the work done at Lake Wells then that in itself adds a variable that wouldn't stack up in scientific studies.