Dmac...I'm an amateur also but got an earful about HPAL on the AUZ thread. There were a lot of horror stories about HPAL operations there. Flippa01 is an engineer who has been personally involved in building them, he should be listened to. You can check out what he has to say on the CLQ threads pertaining to laterites, he is highly regarded with first-hand experience in HPAL laterite processing.
He is still an AUZ long so it hasn't scared him off.
Large-scale laterite operations have had a lot of trouble for various reasons, not all related to HPAL per se; but enough to be noticeable and make people nervous. Even the ones that came out OK in the end often had start-up problems. You got these big pressurized tanks filled with acid at high heat and temperature, so it's inherently dangerous and pretty tricky.
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