• evranch
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      11 months ago

      That’s rare earths. Lithium is spread quite broadly, there is a lot in South America in particular.

      In fact rare earths are pretty common as well, it’s just that only China is willing to destroy their environment with the dirty refining processes required to extract them cheaply.

    • stealth_cookies
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      11 months ago

      Nope, in actual quantity, there is tons of lithium out there, particularly in South America (also sea water, but it isn’t cost effective to extract).

      I worked in a battery lab many years ago and they figured then that with the known deposits then there were well over a hundred years of lithium available with zero recyling.