California Republican congressman Ken Calvert said America must be "clear-eyed about the Chinese and Russian aggression when it comes to consolidating critical mineral resources.”

The US is still dependent on China for minerals to feed its nascent battery manufacturing efforts.

Scorching gains for lithium threaten to push costs even higher for Chinese battery makers.

Electra, Avalon and Snowlake will supply LG with 7,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate, 55,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide and 200,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide respectively.

Mexico hopes its reserves of the key battery component will help it benefit from a global shift toward electric vehicle production.

CATL last month announced plans to build a second European EV battery plant in Hungary, investing 7.3 billion euros in partnership with Mercedes-Benz.

The initiative, launched in June, is designed to funnel investment toward developing countries with mining projects that adhere to stricter environmental, social and governance standards.

There have been signs Germany’s bureaucracy could be costly with respect to Tesla’s investment in Gruenheide.