What is Basket Price?
Miners often tout their “Basket Price”—the weighted average value of all the elements in their ore. If they have lots of Dysprosium, they claim a high basket price.
The Reality Check
Revenue is vanity; margin is sanity. A complex ore (like Eudialyte) might have a high basket price but requires an incredibly expensive chemical plant to process (high OpEx). A simple ore (like Bastnäsite) might have a lower basket price but is cheap to process. Always look at the Operating Margin, not just the Basket Price.