Probably having a JORC laterite reserve ready waiting for the...

Probably having a JORC laterite reserve ready waiting for the cobalt boom helped a few. People can easily multiply the tonnage by the grade by the commodity price and get dollars in their eyes, whereas an explorer talking about dips and strikes, mafic this felsic that, can be confusing. The Australian laterite projects have the benefit of scale over grade, but most will hurt when it comes to funding time, as most (not all) are limonite/goethite type oxides needing costly HPAL beneficiation. Many of them were already drilled out in the past and were waiting for the nickel price to make them viable again (cheap SE Asian 'nickel pig iron' for industrial use destroyed the nickel price). Then along came the EV boom and a sustained rise in the cobalt price - "(wait a second, don't we have cobalt?) Introducing Company X, battery metals specialist, we have Cobalt AND Nickel". So they were already positioned to take advantage, while the sulphide explorers were busy staking claims in Canada, Africa, Europe, etc. and confusing the laypeople with geology terminology.

Promotion and marketing are also very powerful forces, essential even. It's not difficult to see how they have played out across the sector.

hope that helps