It’s worth looking at U.S. net imports of each of these minerals to understand just how hard reaching self-sufficiency will be. Again, this almost certainly means that there is no mining production unless the USGS missed something. For cobalt the obstacles are similar though the United States produces some of the cobalt it uses, about 24 percent. The United States imports about half the nickel it uses and only 25 percent of the lithium it needs. And, the market for minerals is generally worldwide so world prices govern which deposits will be viable.

Source: New York Times April 03, 2022 15:55 UTC