Lithium

Lithium mining has long been recognized as a scar of industry, as both the process and its biproducts are terrible for the environment. But lithium remains critical for the battery resources which power everything from some cybertech, to palm-pods, to certain electronic vehicles.
While the push towards solar and dynamo powered devices was strong over the previous centures, some devices cannot be powered without either traditional batteries, or batteries that are rechargeable via plug in to Astro panel sources.
With ongoing catastrophe of global warming looming large in public consciousness, scientists finally managed to convince major governments to ban toxic and destructive processes that further harmed the environment, like fracking and deep mining for toxic elements. Instead, one by one, those resources were replaced through asteroid mining (a process first successfully achieved in 2030).

Who owns the Lithium in asteroids?

Any asteroids within 500,000 km of earth are considered the property of Earth and its inhabitants, diplomatic and equally, meaning any mining requires a significant diplomatic headache, not to mention freely giving a huge portion of the mining yield away. 
However, beyond the 500,000km threshold (which is just beyond the Moon's orbit) asteroids are considered under the ancient Roman law of invenientis tenentis (also known as Finders' Keepers'). This has led to more intrepid companies developing better scanning technology in an attempt to accurately identify the composition of likely asteroids for different mining possibilities, including primarily lithium. 
This barrier has lead to a series of Corporate ore refineries just beyond the 500,000 km mark, which drag the asteroids into "comfortable" range of earth before breaking down the rock into useable ores. These ores are almost exclusively operated remotely by machines and drones, but some personel remain to safeguard the stations. There are also significant security measures in place to protect the ore, although this has not stymied the accusations of corporate espionage between the companies.

Li