Lithium production has greatly increased since the end of
World War II. The main sources of lithium are
brines and
ores. Lithium metal is produced through
electrolysis applied to a mixture of fused 55%
lithium chloride and 45%
potassium chloride at about 450 °C. Lithium is one of the elements critical in a world running on renewable energy and dependent on batteries. This suggests that lithium will be one of the main objects of
geopolitical competition, but this perspective has also been criticised for underestimating the power of economic incentives for expanded production.
Reserves and occurrence The small ionic size makes it difficult for lithium to be included in early stages of mineral crystallization. As a result, lithium remains in the molten phases, where it gets enriched, until it gets solidified in the final stages. Such lithium enrichment is responsible for all commercially promising lithium
ore deposits.
Brines (and dry salt) are another important source of Li+. Although the number of known lithium-containing deposits and brines is large, most of them are either small or have too low Li+ concentrations. Thus, only a few appear to be of commercial value. The
US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated worldwide identified lithium reserves in 2022 and 2023 to be 26 million and 28 million
tonnes, respectively. An accurate estimate of world lithium reserves is difficult. One reason for this is that most lithium classification schemes are developed for solid ore deposits, whereas brine is a
fluid that is problematic to treat with the same classification scheme due to varying concentrations and pumping effects. In 2019, world production of lithium from spodumene was around 80,000 t per annum, primarily from the
Greenbushes pegmatite and from some
Chinese and
Chilean sources. The Talison mine in Greenbushes is reported to be the largest and to have the highest grade of ore at 2.4% Li2O (2012 figures).
Lithium triangle and other brine sources The world's top four lithium-producing countries in 2019, as reported by the US Geological Survey, were
Australia,
Chile,
China and
Argentina. Deposits found in subsurface brines have also been found in the United States (southwest Texas and Arkansas) and South America throughout the
Andes mountain chain. In 2010, Chile was the leading producer, followed by Argentina. Both countries recover lithium from brine pools. According to USGS, Bolivia's
Uyuni Desert has 5.4 million tonnes of lithium. Half the world's known reserves as of 2022 were located in
Bolivia along the central eastern slope of the Andes. The Bolivian government invested US$900 million in lithium production by 2022, and in 2021 successfully produced 540 tons. The brines in the salt pans of the Lithium Triangle vary widely in lithium content. Additional deposits in the same formation were estimated to be as much as 18 million tons if economic means of recovery can be employed. Similarly in Nevada, the
McDermitt Caldera hosts lithium-bearing volcanic muds that consist of the largest known deposits of lithium within the United States. In the US, lithium is recovered from brine pools in
Nevada. and from brine in southwest
Arkansas using the
direct lithium extraction process, drawing on the deep brine resource in the
Smackover Formation. A deposit of
Rotliegend lithium brines containing 43 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent was discovered in the Altmark region of
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in 2025, potentially eliminating the dependency of European electric vehicle battery producers on imported lithium. The deposit located in
Manono,
DRC, may hold up to 1.5 billion tons of lithium spodumene hard-rock. The two largest pegmatites (known as the Carriere de l'Este Pegmatite and the Roche Dure Pegmatite) are each of similar size or larger than the famous Greenbushes Pegmatite in
Western Australia. Thus, the
Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to be a significant supplier of lithium to the world with its high grade and low impurities. On 16 July 2018 2.5 million tonnes of high-grade lithium resources and 124 million pounds of uranium resources were found in the Falchani hard rock deposit in the region
Puno, Peru. In 2020, Australia granted Major Project Status (MPS) to the
Finniss Lithium Project for a strategically important lithium deposit: an estimated 3.45 million tonnes (Mt) of mineral resource at 1.4 percent
lithium oxide. Operational mining began in 2022. The
Pampean Pegmatite Province in Argentina is known to have a total of at least 200,000 tons of
spodumene with
lithium oxide (Li2O) grades varying between 5 and 8 wt %. In Russia the largest lithium deposit Kolmozerskoye is located in
Murmansk region. In 2023, Polar Lithium, a joint venture between Nornickel and
Rosatom, has been granted the right to develop the deposit. The project aims to produce 60,000 tonnes of
lithium carbonate and hydroxide per year and plans to reach full design capacity by 2030.
Other sources Another potential source of lithium was identified as the leachates of
geothermal wells, which are carried to the surface. Recovery of this type of lithium has been demonstrated in the field; the lithium is separated by simple filtration. Reserves are more limited than those of brine reservoirs and hard rock.
Pricing Prices for lithium carbonate in 2024 in the range of $10,000/ton. Most of these were in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia and the lithium is extracted from the brine by evaporative processes. By early 2021, much of the lithium mined globally came from either "
spodumene, the mineral contained in hard rock formations found in places such as Australia and North Carolina" or from salty brine pumped directly out of the ground, as it is in locations in Chile, Argentina, and Arkansas. Some recent lithium mining projects in the United States are attempting to bring DLE into commercial production by these non-evaporative DLE approaches. The use of
electrodialysis and electrochemical intercalation was proposed in 2020 to extract lithium compounds from seawater (which contains lithium at 0.2
parts per million). Ion-selective cells within a membrane in principle could collect lithium either by use of
electric field or a concentration difference.
Environmental issues in Belgrade, Serbia, 11 December 2021 The manufacturing processes of lithium, including the solvent and
mining waste of particular extraction processes can present environmental and health hazards. Lithium extraction done poorly can be fatal to aquatic life due to
water pollution. The surface brine evaporation process has been known to cause surface water contamination, drinking water contamination, respiratory problems, ecosystem degradation and landscape damage, Although lithium occurs naturally, it is a
non-renewable resource yet is seen as crucial in the transition away from
fossil fuels, and the extraction process has been criticised for long-term degradation of water resources. In the southern reaches of
Salar de Atacama lithium-producing company
Albemarle Limitada reached a
concialiatory agreement in 2024 to make reparations freshwater uptake that would have contributed –along with the uptake of copper mining companies– to dry meadows located in the traditional lands of the indigenous
Atacameño people. In its defense Albemarle Limitada have asserted that its use is minimal compared to that of the nearby copper mining companies. In the United States,
open-pit mining and
mountaintop removal mining compete with
brine extraction mining. Environmental concerns include wildlife habitat degradation, potable water pollution including
arsenic and
antimony contamination, unsustainable
water table reduction, and massive
mining waste, including radioactive
uranium byproduct and
sulfuric acid discharge. During 2021, a
series of mass protests broke out in Serbia against the construction of a lithium mine in Western Serbia by the
Rio Tinto corporation. In 2024, an EU backed lithium mining project created large scale protests in Serbia. Some animal species associated with salt lakes in the
Lithium Triangle (in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile) are particularly threatened by the damages of lithium production to the local
ecosystem, including the
Andean flamingo and
Orestias parinacotensis, a small fish locally known as "karachi".
Human rights issues Reporting on lithium extraction companies and
indigenous peoples in Argentina found that the state may did not always protect indigenous peoples' right to
free prior and informed consent, and that extraction companies generally controlled community access to information and set the terms for discussion of the projects and benefit sharing. In Argentina's
Puna region, in 2023, two mining companies (Minera Exar and Sales de Jujuy) extracted over 3.7 billion liters of fresh water, over 31 times the annual water consumption of the local community of Susques department. In Zimbabwe, the global increase in lithium prices in the early 2020s triggered a 'lithium fever' that led to displacement of locals and conflicts between small-scale artisanal miners and large-scale mining companies. Some local farmers agreed to relocate and were satisfied with their compensation. Artisanal miners occupied parts of the
Sandawana mines and a privately owned lithium claim area in
Goromonzi, a rural area close to the capital
Harare. The artisanal miners were later evicted after the area was cordoned off and shut down by Zimbabwe's Environmental Management Agency. Development of the
Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, United States, has met with protests and lawsuits from several indigenous tribes who have said they were not provided free prior and informed consent and that the project threatens cultural and sacred sites. They have also expressed concerns that development of the project will create risks to indigenous women, because resource extraction is linked to
missing and murdered Indigenous women. Protestors have been occupying the site of the proposed mine since January 2021. == Applications ==