"...what is the relation of the new permits to Robber Roost?"

There is no obvious relationship. 

"... but (on the most optimistic and far fetched side possible) somehow could these be the unpatented claims discussed by Tarku...?

No.  If you look at a map of the area and find the highway extended between Tombstone and Bisbee, our Hay Mountain claims are located off the east side of the highway, while Robber's Roost is to the West. 

"Well I guess LBSR says MEPs as in permits not patents. I guess I dont really know the difference."

Permits are rights of use.  One an "own" a claim, but permits much be acquired to work it.  Meanwhile, a claim is not ownership of anything more than the right to apply for a permit or permits to explore/disturb the land.  It seems odd, but that's the way our mining laws have developed.

An original transfer of ownership from the government to another entity is called a patent.  Thereafter, when ownership changes it is done by way of a grant deed.  Patent ownerships are those that simply have not changed hands since the patent was issued.  In other words, a land patent is just another name for "private property" when you are reading about such here.

By the way, patents can be earned by homesteading or working upon mineral claims under terms and conditions extending for years*.  Few mineral claims - worked or not -ever become patented land.  Why?  Because once a claim becomes private property it then becomes subject to local real estate taxation.  Few such places carry value after the claims have been worked.  And in this day a lot of liability attaches to subsequent owners of the land.  That would be for possible known and unknown toxic contamination or other public hazards (like the many people who ignore warnings and fall down abandoned mine shafts).  While a subsequent owner might be entirely innocent of hazards associated with a former mineral claim, that may not keep them out of court initially while a search is underway for a responsible party.

VP

*  There are many other situations by which the federal government will transfer ownership of public lands.  I all such cases the initial transfer is by way of a patent deed or land patent.

http://landgrantpatent.org/pdf/landpatentfacts.pdf