DJR-
Maybe Colorado1 can provide a schematic (visaul depiction) of the old vs. new design.
I am not 100% sure how the new tanks tie into the line, but it seems CPRK was not able to continue producing CuCon during the installation. It seems they would have needed quite a few additional parts to "bypass" the new tanks which are directly in line with the main process flow. The new tanks would have needed to be "in addition to" instead of "directly in line with". I think it would have taken them quite some time (maybe not 2 months) to install the "bypass" in order to capture the downtime missing production. This requires capital they didn't have and probably didn't make sense since the goal was to expand production capabilities and I do not think CPRK expects these tanks to be an issue in the future, which would have supported the addition of a "bypass".
Now, there are probably parts of the mill that could use a "bypass" in order to produce on a lower output level during repair, but I don't think the soaking/scavenger/floatation tanks are where that makes the most sense.
Also, I am not sure when the "interim LT buyer" agreement started, but they might not have had a buyer when they originally brought down the mill? Just a thought.
VVV