Well yes but lithium is easily recycled and solar panels are made from sand and nowhere near rare earth.

See how the soviets destroyed half the Czech countryside looking for Uranium for their bombs and power plants: https://www.rferl.org/a/soviet-uranium-mines-explored-abando...

Uranium mining is a dirty business and if we're going to be needing a lot more of it due to expansion of nuclear and leaving the mining to the lowest bidder it will be very polluting.

I think it’s pretty questionable to suggest it’s easy to recycle, hence the mining of the material isn’t of consequence.

And if we’re just being offhanded then apparently thorium is a replacement for uranium, or there’s the ability to reprocess used fuel again for nuclear power.