Rare earth metals and oil production are not equivalents. Lithium is not the only metal for batteries, but it's necessary for lithium ion batteries which is where rising demand for batteries is coming from. The fact that multiple metals are needed for battery production only supports the fact that forming a global cartel to coordinate the production of each is impractical. OPEC can influence oil prices because it can manage production of a single resource it holds in large quantities. How would abattery metal OPEC equivalent coordinate that? It's a safe intuition to rest on that forming global cartels is the exception not the rule when they are relatively rare in mineral exports. The only similarities between oil and battery metal production seems to be that both come from the ground. I would think it's safe to assume that the economic and political wrangling of enough countries that produce meaningful proportions of battery metals is not something that is likely to succeed. After all, the belief that "all it takes is a significant portion of the market" ignores that global cartels actually aren't very common.