There are various different compound of lithium at different qualities that count as 'battery grade'. That is what makes the market so complex.

But generally speaking yes, there are 100s of junior lithium miners and all the big miners as well engaged in lithium extraction.

Clay is as of yet untouched in mass production of lithium with many companies wanting to exploit it.

Maybe most common is research on DLE, lithium extraction from brine where the brine is simply pumped back. This also exists in a deep brine variant where you pump water from super deep reservoirs.

The problem is the ev market is going gang busters and even established companies spend decades on getting new plants up and running.

They already are. With increased production, the price per unit staying stable means you either have an extremely mature industry, or the existing players don’t have any competition and can maintain insane YoY increases off of volume alone.