China and the Congo do not have this governmental restrictions.
Lithium and cobalt is extremely toxic. The long term birth defects alone would be more than most corporations want to be exposed to the potential tort liability.
Plus China now controls so much of the production of these two that they can purposely overproduce the market just to eliminate the competition. This seems to be the case with the cobalt mine in Idaho that opened then closed a few years back.
The majority of the worlds nickle comes from Indonesia and the Philippians.
The majority of the worlds copper comes from Chile and Peru.
One of those two companies nationalized the production because they were concerned China would come in and buy up all the mines like they did in the Congo.
“Lithium and cobalt is extremely toxic. The long term birth defects alone would be more than most corporations want to be exposed to the potential tort liability.”
-—————Top ten biggest lithium mines in the world—————————
2. Thacker Pass Lithium Project – 179.4Mt
Thacker Pass Lithium Project is being developed in two stages. Image courtesy of Lithium Americas Corp.
The Thacker Pass lithium project is located in Humboldt County, Nevada, US. It is 100% owned and operated by Lithium Americas.
https://www.mining-technology.com/features/top-ten-biggest-lithium-mines/?cf-view