Talison Lithium, a partnership between China’s Tianqi and U.S. group Albemarle, obtained an environmental approval for the A$516-million ($361m) expansion of the Greenbushes mine in Western Australia.
The exploration and development company became the second Australian miner since April to back off from plans to buy the Glencore's CSA, in New South Wales.
The new legislation goes further than ever before, looking at not only the domestic mineral resources but the supply chains that refine the raw materials for electric vehicles.
Australian Mines aims to produce 53,300 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 8,500 of cobalt sulphate a year, making it a sizeable producer of the materials used in lithium batteries for electric vehicles.
The new mining code that Congo passed last year confirmed that subcontracting in the mining industry will be limited to companies of which the majority of capital is held by Congolese.
The electric vehicles pioneer is worried about the effects of booming demand for EVs will have on the supply of minerals needed to manufacture rechargeable batteries.