Big issue in Australia is we like to dig things up and essentially give them away internationally.
Fossil fuel companies have a very big say in government decisions. There is a recent change of government, so they'll have slightly less of a say - but still a large amount.
What we really need to do, if we were forward-thinking enough, is value-add our resources. Instead of sending away lithium and buying back batteries, we should develop the capability locally.
Do Australia or Chile have material processing capacity? There is a world of difference between lithium and the sorts of refined powders battery makers use to produce the finished product. Besides Redwood Materials in the U.S., I think that refining capacity is almost entirely in China.
Any ”Gigafactory” built these days likely has a plan for producing raw materials through recycling old batteries. There have been cells produced already with nickel/cobalt/manganese from old cells. Lithium will also be recycled into batteries. See e.g the “Revolt ett” plant in Sweden.
