Do you know how lithium is mined? It's not a rare metal you open a pit mine for.

Lithium is extracted from water which is pumped to the surface and allowed to evaporate. What's left is a salt that has a high concentration of lithium and is further refined.

I'm not saying it's a process without environmental impact, but it seems like there should be some sound way of domestically extracting this resource that reduces our carbon output.