Ping.
I have known about this for some time.
The cobalt and lithium deposits on Earth are found in some of the most hostile to civilization place you can imagine.
Afghanistan, for instance, would become the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’ if they ever got to actually mine the stuff without the Taliban and ISIS killing them. That may be the basis for the Taliban and ISIS tenacity in those Afghan mountains, they know the riches that would be theirs to exploit...................