My understanding of CLQ is that it was always a nickel sulphate...

My understanding of CLQ is that it was always a nickel sulphate project first (sulphates convert well from oxides, it's the goethite extraction that causes cost issues), and the nickel price is performing well atm. Obviously in 2017 when cobalt went crazy they flipped the marketing to cobalt-nickel, but it still makes sense to forge ahead with nickel now, and risk the cobalt output with the advantage of being potentially early later.

I don't think the wait for a cobalt turnaround will be that long. Opuwo is still exceptional in the world of cobalt deposits. It was probably, in hindsight, just too early.