alt Hacker NewsAnother book on this is:
_Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization_ by Ed Conway
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112974899-material-world
>Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future
Lithium seems like a weird one to add to that list. It definitely hasn’t been important for thousands of years. Potassium or Nitrates are a more likely addition.