Thanks for the emphasis, but production isn't defined the way you want it wishfully to be defined. Lithium ore is not very useful at all. It's refined lithium everyone cares about and China is responsible for ~60-70% of the world's lithium production:
Which brings me back to my point - big lithium deposits in countries with unfriendly relationships with the US and its allies isn’t as big a deal as people think.
If it were so simple then oil refineries would exist everywhere, yet they don't. This suggests that major investments in refining infrastructure pays huge dividends for the nation.
Oil refineries exist where they do largely as a function of technical complexity and shipping costs (ie pipeline infrastructure).
Just because it’s called “refining” doesn’t mean that lithium refining is anywhere near as complex as oil refining.
The component of the oil analogy that does correlate is the fact that oil refineries are generally situated close to where the end products are consumed. Which in the case of lithium is batteries, the production of which is indeed largely sited in China as well.
That is to say, China doesn’t control the supply of lithium, rather they control the supply chain of lithium based goods.
That may seem like a minor difference, but the resolution to that is categorically different.
https://themeghalayan.com/china-controls-70-of-global-lithiu...