Before the US military had to forcibly remove Native Americans...

Before the US military had to forcibly remove Native Americans from the mineral-rich territory in the West, it had to forcibly remove the Mexicans who had claimed it since independence in 1821. That was done by the Mexican-American War in 1848. California and much of the region east of it were ceded to the United States, just months before gold was found at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento.

That discovery started the California Gold Rush. At the time, there were roughly 157,000 people in the California territory; 150,000 Native Americans, 6,500 of Spanish or Mexican descent known as Californios and fewer than 800 non-native Americans. (The non-indigenous population of Australia in 1848 was about 330,000.)

It’s interesting to speculate what would have happened to the mineral wealth of Arizona, had Mexico kept the territory. Just 400 miles southeast of Big Sandy in the Mexican state of Sonora is a much bigger clay lithium deposit, Bacanora, claimed by Ganfeng for more than a decade. But Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits in 2022, as it did with oil in the 1930s, and has not reached an agreement with Ganfeng to let them operate a mine there for a share of the profits. Ganfeng has the technology; Mexico doesn’t.

If clay turns out to be a viable method competitive with DLE, then Arizona battery makers will find cheaper product in Mexico and can import it without tariffs unless Trump abrogates the trade agreement he negotiated with Mexico and Canada.