Problem Lithium-ion Batteries in the Upcoming Years

The world's technology has advanced tremendously since the beginning of time. The 21st century can be called the "technological era"-We are now in an age where our refrigerators can communicate with everyday life, Cellular devices are also considered to be “mini laptops '', and cars are starting to drive themselves. All the things that seemed impossible in sci-fi movies are now becoming reality. Before we go on, I'd like to ask you a question. Have you heard of lithium-ion batteries? Can you name a few devices that use these batteries? 
Countless new technologies are gradually filling our lives, but many times, consumers don't really know the materials that go into these devices. In this article, I will inform you about the technological problem Lithium-ion batteries will pose in the upcoming years, what they are, how they are used, and how they are made.

Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable batteries, which mainly rely on lithium ions to move between the positive and negative electrodes to work. They are used in products such as toys, electric vehicles, headphones and laptops. Lithium-ion batteries are made up from critical raw materials, also known as CRMs. CRMs are very important to the environment in which we live in, but because of their limited supply, they do pose a high risk in the development of lithium-ion batteries.
The scarcity of CRMs connects with the lithium-ion batteries because a few of the materials that make up the compound for the batteries will be low in years to come. One main important material that makes up for some of the lithium batteries is cobalt, a metal that comes from the earth’s crust. The metal is mined, cleaned, then shipped all over the world and is put into lithium-ion batteries to help power our everyday devices. If the supply for cobalt is low and the demand is high, then we have a problem. 
If I could take the time to do research to make this problem more efficient, I would take the time to look at where the most of our CRMs come from. I would also study how the materials are mined, cleaned, and transported. With that being stated, if I had the financial means to help with this situation, I would use the money to purchase and make an invention of a robot that is capable of mining CRMs such as cobalt. As of now there are humans that do hard labor to get the raw materials, thus making the work very hard and even life threatening. With the use of the mining robots, it will limit the need for humans to do the hard labor. The industry utilizes robots all the time when doing hard labor. If I could produce a mining robot, I believe that it could revolutionize the way that things are being found underground. I also believe that it could find even more raw materials. I would want to do this research personally to relieve people from the dangers of finding such materials and to keep the world powering on.