I don’t think the German regulatory authorities are going to be...

I don’t think the German regulatory authorities are going to be a large issue in the grand scheme of things. I’m probably over analysing it a bit but I look at ‘green metals’ as a form of national security. Volkswagen, Mercedes, and BMW just to name a few, will be doing their absolute best to compete with the likes of Tesla on the EV front. Keep in mind these companies employ hundreds of thousands of Germans and it’s in their best interests to keep these industries as competitive as possible. It would be incredibly stupid for authorities to throw road blocks up and delay lithium extraction especially when you look at what the US is doing - Biden using special ‘war time’ powers in order to increase and encourage lithium investment/mining.

So far it looks like there hasn’t been any significant issues with German authorities. The only real threat I’ve seen to date has been the citizens initiative but they seem to be utterly incompetent and ignorant and aren’t even on the radar anymore.