"The winners will be the ones who can secure the funds. It is not all about the rocks as some would like us to believe."
That's wrong... and you just proved it is wrong, again... while wrongly citing Betamax as a proof that "The winners will be the ones who can secure the funds".
"You have to be able to sell your rocks, in this case to investors."
LOL!!!
You've already lost this argument with yourself... and won't win it now by trying the bait and switch in claiming that it is the financiers and investors in the company who are now suddenly "the customers" who will buy and use the niobium products ?
What matters most is PRODUCT QUALITY... which includes "what the customers want"... with "a better product for less money" always being a pretty safe bet.
In mining... both product quality and product cost are functions of what the rocks have in them... and what they don't... which are not functions that are capable of being modified by finance.