You'd be surprised how deep this goes.

A major automotive manufacturer just brought North America's first direct spodumene-to-battery-grade lithium hydroxide refinery online. No middle steps. No traditional processing routes.

That's not just faster—it rewrites the entire supply chain playbook. The industry's been doing this the long way for decades.

This shift matters beyond electric vehicles. When lithium production becomes more efficient, downstream costs drop. That ripple effect reaches everywhere energy-intensive operations source their materials.