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Yeah it's called a rare earth mineral because the concentration in ore is so low not because there's little of it in total.

It does unfortunately mean that you need to excavate a lot to mine it which is not great for the environment either (even though lithium is currently key to most renewable technologies)

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There's also 180 billion tons of lithium in sea water, which is 1.3 million years of lithium at our current usage, and it would require no mining. It only requires electrodes in water with special coating to keep sodium at a minimum, and of course electricity. The coating is the part that's still being worked on, but they have one that that provides a 1:1 ratio of lithium to sodium.

Lithium is not a rare earth mineral. Typical weight fraction in ore is 0.5-8%.

> Typical weight fraction in ore is 0.5-8%.

The lithium mine in question is 0.22%, doesn't seem like your range is that typical.

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