“The process starts with old batteries being separated and burned to strip away non-metal components. What’s left gets crushed into something called black mass. This is essentially a powder packed with recoverable metals. From there, a water-based chemical treatment called hydrometallurgy pulls the lithium out. One clever distinction in this new process is that the recovered lithium hydroxide actually replaces a chemical traditionally used during refining. This cuts the carbon footprint by about 40% compared to older methods.”

Article also said that previous methods got about 45% of the lithium from recycling.

I don’t think they mean that Australia has to give more. They mean that Australis helping Ukraine in general is already a big message to China. If Australia is already willing to do “the right thing” involving a country that is so far away then you can imagine what they are willing to do when the threat is a lot closer to them.