The linked in article below by Matt Fernley of Battery Metals...

The linked in article below by Matt Fernley of Battery Metals Review is worth reading. The gist of the issue is that when small volumes of HPMSM were required, there was enough suitable material for this to meet demand from low cost carbonate ore's. As demand for HPMSM grows, the capacity of suitable materials to meet demand gets consumed and you start needing to use less amenable oxide ore's which involve more/difficult processing to get to the level of purity required.

Matt Fernley's article of 3 November 2020
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/some-manganese-more-equal-than-others-matt-fernley/

While Butcherbird Ore is manganese oxide, the combination of the impurity mix of the ore and the "CSIRO" process mean that E25 is able to produce HPMSM through a process that has an acceptable price/quality point. Higher Mn battery types are being explored and show a lot of promise but they need a big, stable source of HPMSM.



From Matt's article 3yr ago article, the bulk of the HPMSM is produced using Carbonate ore's which is an easier pathway to the purity required. These deposits of circa 2% of world supply and at risk of being run-down. If HPMSM demand is as strong as some forecasts, processes using Oxide ore will need to be used to meet demand. This will increase the cost curve making higher prices possible.