Now for one I'd favour an Australian solution as would others no...

Now for one I'd favour an Australian solution as would others no doubt, so seems the horse has bolted with this recent (and timely) announcement from Cobalt Blue:

MOU with Ecobatt: Ecobatt is the pre-eminent battery recycling company in Australia, managing a national collection system to recycle and process spent batteries. Recently, Cobalt Blue tested samples of Ecobatt’s black mass at the Broken Hill Development Centre and successfully extracted cobalt, nickel and manganese.The two companies have agreed to continue collaborating to explore and evaluate opportunities around processing black mass into critical minerals to re-enter the battery supply chain. This partnership is built on the expectation that the result of the complementary functions will contribute to the growth of Australia’s battery recycling ecosystem.