The Chinese will be happy to supply us with Lithium. In the form of completed batteries.
I use to buy hundreds of pounds of tungsten a month for a product I manufactured. It was inexpensive buying from international suppliers (Europe) and even China. After the Tsunami wiped out a bunch of tech manufacturing the Chinese clamped down on the supply and tungsten went insane. And they used their near monopoly of the supply to blackmail anyone who used it. HOWEVER... They would be HAPPY to sell it to you dirt cheap provided you had the complete product made in China, with Chinese labor.
Until crooks start opening up US mining we will always ben at the mercy of China and the crooks in DC that China owns. It is laughable that anyone thinks we will mine a single gram of rare earths and lithium with the corrupt jerks in DC and their environazi foot soldiers.
Niocorp. Elk Creek Nebraska. Niobium, scandium, titanium, REEs. Private land, no Fed permitting required. Fully permited by Nebraska. Mine and Extraction facility in Nebraska. Not on Fed land, no radioactive constituants, wont pollute any streams or rivers; They need the minerals and the fed has no leverage.
https://www.niocorp.com/newsroom/news-releases/
https://investorshub.advfn.com/Niocorp-Developments-Ltd-NIOBF-18707