Definitely an extremely sad thing to see the Project go into...

Definitely an extremely sad thing to see the Project go into Maintenance mode, but very few options really.
At the current Co price, no new mines are going to be viable unless the Co is simply a side credit. As we have seen, even some of the main existing ones are going offline.

Two main elephants in the room, future Cobalt price and CLA's cost's to run the Project, capex and opex.

The Co price will have to find a happy medium, or the world simply ceases to use it. Will the EV's cease production or thier increase in growth through fear of the 'happy medium' Co price? I can't see that happening.

Capex/Opex - Well, we don't have any idea really do we, not once have we received a concrete figure throughout CLA's history. People who have seen the unreleased SS will have some figures to play with, but with the current Co price I can't see them being willing to do much about it unless they are very forward thinking. Those are the exact same companies that CLA wouldn't want to sell to at the current prices.
Hearsay of the $35k-$40k breakeven point sounds reasonable to me, but everyone definitely needs it on a company letterhead statement. The simple fact of it being sulphide rather than laterite was a major factor for me, and I haven't seen anything reported that goes against this yet.

Delayed SS - Originally everyone was amazed at the timelines offered, and with so much land to explore that was bound to be a problem. If the DOF had been a well defined 'lump' of ore, it would have been a hell of a lot easier to gauge than a seam that runs way off over the horizon. The improved grades and thicker area's had to be included in the SS if it was to pull a good price. Now we have an Anticline rearing its humpback which could prove to be an even more accessible source, and is it the only one?
Infill drilling has been done for the DOF western extension for Resource inclusion, allowing it to be included in SS, but afaik the Anticline would currently be excluded. This itself may have been a significant component of the slow down. Expend the $$ to research/drill the Anticline to improve mining costs and the SS or just admit that there is sufficient Co already and let it rest for now.

So out of all the available Cobalt stocks to get into, this one still seems one of the most likely to actually get anywhere. The old bones of "The grades are too low" and "It's way too deep" are such poor rhetoric that the honest replies of sulphide requiring massively less energy to refine or "It actually starts at ground level" (apart from maybe 10-15m of oxide?) just slide over the protagonist's head like a flatearther.

I'll be waiting for the Co price to do it's thing.