Abundant doesn't mean available in location. It can be concentrated in one spot and more economic to mine there and ship where needed.

Australia also exports a billion tons of iron ore to China. Iron ore is everywhere, but easier to mine good ore in Australia and ship it. Shipping is really efficient.

my response was from the security of access angle.

sure, lithium is more abundant than gold or silver but lithium access is not secure. Given that the largest lithium processing facilities by far are in one country (Chile), the supply of lithium is far from secure.