The guaranteed supply is only an issue when there is scarcety...

The guaranteed supply is only an issue when there is scarcety (there's oodles of supply from South America)
or if the USA imposed trade sanctions on China ala Iran.
If the latter then Australia will follow Uncle Sam.

The South American suppliers are the biggest and richest in the Li world and, at this stage, I wouldn't bet on GXY
(the novice) pipping them in quality at this stage.
The GXY sponsored University of Wooloongong hard rock Li study is a bit dated given the pace of research and development in the Li world.

While Talison is ramping-up production of spodumene of quality ranging from 5 -7.5% for China, it is currently busy building a massive Li Carbonate plant in WA to supply westerm, Japanese and Korean battery markets.

It is worth while considering changing supply as well as
percieved changing demand.

I'm betting on oversupply up to at least 2015 due to current and developing supply and the slow take-up of electric cars and powergrid storage batteries.

Cheers
moorookamick