RE:RE:RE:here's the problem with 'foot draggin'wrong juan. the reason battery makers don't have agreements with hydrothermal vein/lump miners from sri lanka is because the country can only produce 4000 tons per year, so there is no volume of supply and security of supply would be an issue with sri lanka as well.
hydrothermal is istropic and transmits electricity in 3D while sedimentary flake is anistropic and only tramsmits in 2D. so the flake has to be ground up into potato shapes resulting in the loss of 2/3+ of the feedstock.
until ZEN volume of supply kept the market size limited. that all changes now. besides the Li-ion market will be the low end of ZEN's market rather than a difficult to attain space for sedimentary flake companies.