"Why can't LBSR do what they did in Ak.?"

Different circumstances.  Hay Mountain holds a deeply buried, "blind" or very nearly blind target.  That was not the case in Alaska, where surface sampling yielded stronger suggestions for the presence of mineralization of economic interest.  Yes, "outcropping" mineralization exists at Hay Mountain, but what is at the surface is insufficient to judge what may exist below 200-300 feet of marbleized capping.