Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery titan CATL has warned that mining, and not refining, is now the industry’s real bottleneck, marking a shift in emphasis after years of processing-focused supply chain concern. In an interview with Bloomberg, Vice President Jiang Li argued that extraction, not the mineral processing where China already dominates, poses the bigger long-term constraint for widespread EV adoption.

“Processing is not the bottleneck, but mining is,” Li remarked. He further noted that CATL wants to build its cost advantage from upstream capabilities rather than the refining capacity China has long established control over. The comments sit in contrast to past warnings from customers including Ford, which has said processing capacity was the industry’s more pressing constraint. Ford is among CATL’s larger Western customers, albeit in a relatively atypical way; to get around tariffs it has licensed the battery maker’s technology for use in its own US plants. 

To close the gap between mining and refinement capacity, CATL now plans to establish a new mining unit and has, to this end, appointed Chen Jinghe, Founder of China’s largest metals miner, Zijin, as an adviser. Its current mining portfolio spans domestic and overseas projects in lithium, phosphate and cobalt, part of an effort to reduce reliance on imported ore handled by non-Chinese companies—despite the country’s manufacturing dominance.

The sense of urgency is perhaps most readily apparent given the extended disruptions that have occurred at CATL’s Jianxiawo lithium mine in Jiangxi province. One of the world’s largest single lepidolite deposits, the mine resumed production on 29 June after a permit dispute forced a shutdown lasting almost an entire year. The mine, which accounted for between 8%–10% of China’s lithium carbonate output before its suspension, had contributed to sharp swings in lithium prices. Chinese lithium carbonate futures jumped 8.36% on news of the restart, closing at CN¥163,360 (US$24,000) per tonne.

With roughly 100,000 tonnes of annual lithium carbonate capacity, the mine is expected to add more than 45,000 tonnes of incremental supply in the second half of 2026, according to Mysteel analyst Li Pan, who forecasts prices trading between CN¥150,000 and CN¥200,000 per tonne over the same period. 

It goes without saying that the price of lithium has a substantial impact on battery manufacturing costs; lithium typically comprises anywhere between 2–12% of the total battery weight depending on chemistry. CATL held a 40.1% share of the global battery market, and roughly half of China’s, between January and April 2026, according to SNE Research. Thus, the security of its own supply is deeply interconnected with that of the wider EV industry. 

Alongside its mining push, CATL is advancing sodium-ion battery technology as a hedge against lithium price volatility, using a globally abundant material that sidesteps the geographic concentration of lithium reserves. “If the price of lithium goes up, then we can make more sodium-ion batteries,” Li said, framing the chemistry as a release valve rather than a wholesale replacement. In May, CATL invested an additional CN¥5bn to build 40 GWh of new sodium-ion battery production capacity in Fujian province, bringing the site’s total planned capacity to 149 GWh.

The strategy points to a company trying to control both ends of the supply chain at once, locking in upstream lithium, cobalt and phosphate assets while diversifying into sodium chemistry to blunt the impact when lithium supply falters. Li’s message, in essence, is that CATL’s scale as a battery maker means little if it cannot also vertically integrate the raw materials that scale depends on.