Mining News ran an article back on 8 May titled:  Chinas grip on battery metals supply chain

It reads like a propaganda piece for Chinese dominance.  A short segment from the article is below:

"Another step down the value chain is lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing.

The rise of battery megafactories, says Benchmark, has predominantly been taking place in mainland China so it comes as little surprise that 73% of output last year was within China.

Of the 136 lithium-ion battery plants in the pipeline to 2029, 101 are based in China.

Coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, China’s supply chain dominance puts it in the driver’s seat for the future of the automotive industry as EV investments scale and legacy ICE technologies falter.

The data demonstrate its dominance from last year, a picture that is set to grow in favour of China out to 2025."

The link for the whole article:  http://www.miningnewspro.com/News/525794/China’s-grip-on-battery-metals-supply-chain

So China seems pretty secure in their belief that they will continue to dominate lithium processing and battery manufacture for the foreseeable future.  Considering the lessons the U.S. has hopefully learned about the supply chain pitfalls in this and other industries as a result of the changes that have come about due to the Corona virus situation it may result, notice I said "may", in a much needed change in the U.S. attitude of letting China do it.. and may serve as an incentive for securing the supply chain and battery production of lithium ion batteries here in the U.S.... as well as securing lithium production here in the U.S.  It will be important to see if the U.S. government is really intent on effecting a change from "let China do it" to:  "Let's do it here in the U.S.".    If words of the need for securing important minerals and the entire supply chain up through product development ( batteries re: lithium ) lead to action by the U.S. government then LAC should have a very rosy picture here in the U.S.   Notice that I used the word "IF".