Astartup led by a Canadian battery chemist is racing to crack a made-in-America energy breakthrough even as Trump’s tariffs cast a long shadow over the battery supply chain. Boston-based Pure Lithium is building a pilot plant for a new kind of lithium metal battery, one it claims could outperform today’s lithium-ion cells, and, crucially, be built entirely without Chinese inputs. These efforts come at a crucial time for the U.S., as the world’s biggest economy moves to loosen China’s grip on the global supply of critical minerals. China dominates minerals China’s dominance in this space continues to pose a strategic...