Scarselli told Reuters last month BHP saw lithium's demand-supply equation as not as fundamentally stretched as that for copper and nickel.
BHP CEO Mike Henry has maintained that the world's biggest miner has no appetite for lithium, because its relative abundance made it impossible to gain a strategic position in a long-life, low-cost deposit.
....no single lithium producer can dominate the sector the way BHP has for iron ore.
....and the disadvantage of Australian lithium mines is the absence of proximity to own sovereign EV industry, the way China, US and EU all do. Eventually just many producers across the world producing ample supplies to a ready wanting and growing EV market- there is no MOAT. Everyone is a price taker - and suppliers/producers in US will have the long term advantage.