The issue with lithium is it is effectively illegal to process in most of the world that knows how to do it. The subtext in this article is that Australia is a major lithium producer ... because it has easy access to the Chinese refining pipeline which refines the cheap and dirty way.
If it were practical to refine lithium in the cheap way we know how, then countries with large lithium reserves (US & Europe) would be large lithium suppliers.
> The issues with lithium mining in Australia are no different to those experienced in the industry more broadly: open-cut mining carves deep scars in the landscape, often within ecosystems that are already under pressure
This is one of those "we just don't like living in an industrial society" complaints that NIMBYs come up with. It doesn't say anything and it is wilfully ignorant of the practicalities of maintaining the complex and raw-material-hungry world we live in. If you want products made using materials, you have to extract those materials. The environmental damage of open pit mining operations is nothing compared to the environmental damage and visual pollution of a large city. And you know what? Almost everyone chooses to live in a city. The costs are well worth it.
There are no alternatives. If you restrict open pit mining, you will not have products made of metal. We need industrial processes to maintain 21st century living standards.