By Trevor Hunnicutt and Ernest Scheyder WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden could invoke a Cold War-era defense law as soon as this week to encourage domestic production of minerals needed to make electric vehicle batteries, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Such an order under the Defense Production Act is expected to help companies access government funding for feasibility studies for new projects that extract lithium, nickel and other EV metals, or to make existing facilities more productive. The funds would not be used to dig new mines or buy minerals for govern…