American Jobs Plan, Green New Deal … irrespective of whether these plans will get implemented fully or in part, the renewable energy transition is already here, and it’s here to stay.

The renewable energy sector has been transforming at neck-breaking speed, and with that, demand for the metals and minerals underpinning the green energy shift has been surging. EV battery technology is one of the key drivers of these developments, and battery mega factories are shooting up like mushrooms.

In a recent podcast interview with HC Insider, Simon Moores — managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and a member of the ARPN panel of experts — zeroes in on lithium, one of the key building blocks of battery technology.

As HC Insider points out, “[lithium] mining is constrained by available ores and multiyear start up times. Chemical processing and cathode production is technically challenging, environmentally impactful, and concentrated in China. EV manufacturers are buying all the Lithium supply they can on decade-long contracts.”

With demand forecast to vastly outstrip supply two decades from now, the question of how the rest of the world can tackle the lithium supply chain challenges going forward looms large.

Take a listen as Simon Moores, who has testified before the U.S. Congress on several occasions to alert U.S. policy makers to the magnitude of the global battery arms race, discusses the issue here.