Exxon has signed a preliminary agreement to provide battery metal lithium to an LG Chem plant in the U.S., strengthening the oil major’s role in the domestic critical minerals supply chain.

Ioneer Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada has received its federal permit from the Bureau of Land Management, according to a company statement Oct. 24.

Albemarle Corp., the world’s largest producer of lithium, raised its outlook for the second time this month as tight supply and growing electric vehicle demand forces battery makers to pay up for the metal.

The U.S. is narrowing the gap on China’s dominance of the $46 billion lithium-ion battery industry thanks to investments from Tesla Inc. and the Biden administration’s policy push to drive growth of electric vehicles.

In another sign of how supply chains are being snarled all over the world, a leading U.S. maker of stainless steel was forced to declare force majeure at its Kentucky mill because it can’t get enough of the industrial gases it needs.

The market gloom over the metals that will power the cars of the future is starting to lift.