Five key critical minerals are vital for battery production and efficiency: cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel, and graphite. Broadly speaking these resources had price spikes in 2022, which have subsided since 2023. Lithium is of particular interest since it’s on track to explore new record low prices due to the same oversupply now typical of so many renewable energy supply chain segments (thanks China), but its future demand is set for a new explosion. Normally, an industry with twofold overcapacity is not a good investment – but Rio Tinto apparently believes in a future recovery of the lithium price, evidenced by its newly announced $900 million investment in Chilean lithium mining, one of the largest investments of its kind. Let’s run…