> it must be possible to do in an environmentally conscious way. Or Australia's lithium mines have managed to fly under the radar of the environmentalists

Sadly, both don't seem to be true. Australia's lithium mining has a higher carbon footprint than others (3.4): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092134492...

We has some of the highest CO2 emissions per capita, so it's not much of a surprise we are doing this inefficiently too.