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Mining for heavy metals sounds like a really fast way to pollute the entire ocean considering how much ice you have to melt to get to any type of ore, and the industrial runoff will go right into the ocean currents and spread everywhere.
There’s a reason why China dominates extraction and processing of heavy metals and rare earths; Mostly because they don’t give a shit about environmental laws And this allowed them to ramp up this industry in the last 20 years.
It seems like no other country wants to have heavy refining operations in their own backyard because it poisons everything around it. You either have to manage the industrial runoff and chemical byproducts and dispose of them properly or deal with the health effects that come from the population that works and lives in the vicinity.
Go look at what the conditions for miners are in South Africa where they mine for cobalt and lithium and tell me that you want that in your backyard.
Everyone wants an electric vehicle because it doesn’t pollute the air where they drive; but no one wants cobalt mine and their backyard.
Please note that a fossil fueled vehicle tends to have a much bigger impact wrt. Pollution. Electric vehicles are not just pollution shifting but actual pollution reduction.
What type of pollution? Where is this pollution?
My point is that while it reduces air pollution where it is being driven, it does not mean that pollution due to mining and processing and transportation is also reduced. It is just not seen because all of that is happening in countries with less or no pollution control and worse environmental and labor laws.
As far as total environmental impact, hybrids are a better use and balance between pollution and rare earth minerals used in EV batteries.
Pollution from mining and processing is also worse for fossil vehicles. You are factually incorrect.