No, it's hard enough for analysts to even work out what grades...

No, it's hard enough for analysts to even work out what grades China mine and throughputs. Some conference presntations suggest they run the mining as a loss leader, then the refining breaks even but the magnet production from oxides to magnets is where they make profit. 99% of magnet production is in China, whilst China only mine 76% of global REE. When China sets a production quota, the mines obey. Doesn't appear to be driven by underlying mining economics.

I also try to look for red flags, I noted my first read of the risks here: Post #:71031065. Would love to see some contrarian takes.

Going from a bottle roll to heap leaching does reduce extractions slightly, most studies use a 5% drop from bottle rolls to heap (which is built into my 10% downstream loss assumption). We should know this more clearly when they do column tests, but it all depends on ore competency and permeability . A non-reactive granite ore would be better on this front than say a reactive Nickel laterite heap or even worse, clays.

The key risks IMO, and keen to hear other opinions too:

1. Ore body - does it step out N-S with same continuity from Boundary Fence East. At the end of the day, we have only drilled 19 holes. VMS just announced another 300 holes on top of something like 100 holes already done. They haven't released any met yet, but RDM are far behind on the drilling front. That does save cash but at some point you have to pull the trigger and get things moving.
2. MREC production. No ASX listed company has produced an MREC meeting spec using a leaching pH below 3. Spec to sell into China is >50% TREO, <0.1% Al. VTM using pH 1 leach made MREC at12% TREO, ~1.5% Al so well out of spec. IXR and AR3 haven't shared their MREC spec (wonder why?). Only the ionic clays like MEI and Aclara have made near on spec MREC = big technical risk for low pH leaching due to impurities in the leach liquor.
3. Unique project. No low temp leachable REE in granite project discovered globally. Difficult for market to full understand - see how delayed market reaction was to both the initial drilling and then the Phase 1met results. May need a scoping study done by a reputable tier 1 engineering house to finally give market confidence in the project.
4. REO market. Plenty of unknown risks here - does magnet demand increase at modelled rate, does China keep ramping up production quotas and further reduce prices, are even better rare earth deposits found that change the cost curve and render existing projects obsolete (as Brazilian ionic plays are starting to do to legacy hard rocks like ARU, HAS, ASM), do Western governments continue to support REO projects (or support all but our one?), are REO substituted out of magnets for cheaper alternatives..