Latest / Deep End Era. Engineering with Sankalp
A Mountain Drawn by a Child: Lithium and the Critical Minerals
The price of lithium rose tenfold and then fell by ninety per cent in four years. Episode one hundred and ninety explains why, and why the real chokepoint for the energy transition is not mines but refineries. Teodora, a fictional battery maker's head of raw materials, works through lithium from salt flats and hard rock, nickel from Indonesia, cobalt from the Congo, graphite, copper and rare earth magnets, and China's export controls of 2025 and 2026. Teodora and her company are fictional; everything else is sourced in the fact-check log. Builds on the battery chemistry and mining episodes…
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