"Since it seems technology is not in short supply but some of the raw materials such as graphite may be, why wouldn't one of them consider it."

And that Tidal Pool is the billion dollar question, why haven't they?

A question we have all asked ourselves that's for sure. AE has stated that no one will make a move until the PEA which means until costs and margin is known. I suppose one of the curses of being a unique deposit in a secretive market is no one will take a 'leap of faith' so to speak as they would with a gold deposit where the market and the mining is a 'known' so to speak. I am surprised by this myself or at least initially I was but it seems like this is the way it will play out.

So, we wait for the PEA (still wait that is). If the economics are at least as good as we expect there is NO reason for a major deal or set of deals to go down in short order after that. There can be no excuses after that, no hiding behind secretive markets, etc. At that point the value has to be shown in the share price, that is, management has to get that value to show.