Exactly. US has near to zero Lithium production capacity, leaving aside infrastructure to build sufficient amount of batteries. LAC has a mine and quite advanced strategy to mitigate the impact of their mining activity on surrounding area. The only problem here es few old Indians, who believe, that their burial site is somewhere in Thacker Pass (the younger one do not know) and few environmentalists trying to protect a desert from being even more empty than it is now.

Should Biden be serious about conversion to EV, then anyone mining lithium and copper should be protected by an executive order from harassment from environmentalists. Mines like Thacker Pass is the cost associated with electrification of the light vehicle fleet.