There are three aspects of raw material assessment of batteries that can't be reduced to each other and therefore should not be integrated into a single metric: resource depletion, supply chain risk, and environmental and social impacts of mining.
Olivetti et al. synthesized the available data on consumption rates relative to available reserves for nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), lithium, (Li), and natural graphite. They found that the ratio of known reserves to primary mine production (also known as the static depletion index) has increased for Co, Li, and natural graphite, suggesting that continued demand has resulted in additional exploration and extraction. Mn and Ni did not show an upward or downward trend, indicating that the ratio of production to known reserves has remained relatively constant.
Interestingly, Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are often praised to be better than batteries with Nickel-based cathodes because they only require "earth-abundant" materials. However, if we are to produce 2 TWh of LFP batteries per year by 2030, with 500 Wh/kg of cathode energy density of LFP, and Phosphorous being 19.6% of LFP cathode by mass, 784,000 metric tonnes of phosphorous will go yearly into batteries alone. This is comparable to 910,000 tonnes produced presently. Could this contribute to the problem of peak phosphorous? I didn't find any discussion of this whatsoever. Phosphorous is abundant in the rocks all over the Earth, but is not economical to extract to produce fertilisers. Maybe this is not a problem for batteries, because they can easily withstand become several times more expensive without affecting the total cost of batteries much? Even if so, there could be a market-driven risk here: LFP manufacturers will use cheaper phosphates in the short-term, making the future phosphate shortage problem for fertiliser production more acute.
Supply chain risk is a geopolitical risk associated with highly concentrated production, which can lead to conflict, price instability, and artificial shortages. Cobalt reserves and mining production are concentrated in DR Congo, but 95% of cobalt refining happens in China. China also produces 64% of the world's graphite and 55% of aluminium. Morocco has 70% of the world's phosphate reserves.
In DR Congo, there have been serious environmental and social consequences of copper and cobalt mining, ranging from child labour to human exposure to heavy metals, particularly from unregulated artisanal and small-scale mining operations.
Life-Cycle Assessment Considerations for Batteries and Battery Materials