Lithium is critical to the manufacturing of batteries that power electric vehicles. As the West tries to turn away from lithium supplied by China, European leaders are focused on local lithium deposits. One is in Serbia, but a plan by Rio Tinto to mine it, has run up against local anger. Tom Moerenhout is a research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs where he follows the extraction of lithium for the global energy transition.
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