Thanks for the link- a good overview of the corruption etc and...

Thanks for the link- a good overview of the corruption etc and the grubby behaviour of china and its 'friends' in Africa to get a hold of cheap lithium that later finds it's way into (cheap) chinese EV's. Western governments don't seem to realise/care that china has an unfair advantage over western manufacturers in the supply chain leading to EV's (and other lithium dependent technologies e.g. renewable energy) that have to meet rigorous ESG standards, that adds to cost of the final product. And china using the 'price' they pay for cheap raw materials from corrupt regimes to then manipulate the price of producers in Australia just rubs salt into the wound. In an ideal world, a level playing field would see chinese EV's being forced to meet those same standards (which of course they can't given the source of their cheap lithium and other critical minerals), or pay punitive tariffs until they do, or perhaps western governments could support their homegrown miners and producers to offset anti-competitive behaviour/collusion of china and african regimes.