What would the play be if someone wanted to buy stocks about primary materials, for instance battery or metals i.e. shovels not gold?

I can't answer this, but I would ask you why you'd want to? Battery and metal companies have lower margins, are more commoditized, and there's tens if not hundreds of companies in these fields. Picking (one of) the best ones is going to be very difficult.
On the other hand, you could just buy Tesla, which is already pretty much locked in as the biggest winner, still has a ton of upside based on EVs and batteries alone, and is working on FSD, bots, and Autobidder on top, each of which could become more profitable than their EV/battery business if they works out.
$Tesla(TSLA.US)$ $NIO Inc(NIO.US)$