Who mines it, by country
According to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, world mine production reached an estimated 290,000 tonnes of lithium content in 2025, up sharply from the year before as new supply came online faster than demand. Australia remained the largest single producer at about 92,000 tonnes, almost all of it hard rock spodumene ore rather than brine. China followed at around 62,000 tonnes, Chile at about 56,000 tonnes, then Zimbabwe at about 28,000 tonnes and Argentina at about 23,000 tonnes. Much of Australia's lead traces back to one site, Greenbushes in Western Australia, the largest hard rock lithium mine on Earth.
Reserves tell a different story. Chile holds the largest proven reserves at about 9.2 million tonnes, with Australia, China, the United States, and Argentina each holding reserves in the 4 to 8 million tonne range, according to the same USGS report. Bolivia is a striking exception: it is not listed in the USGS reserves table at all, only in a separate category of resources, where its Salar de Uyuni deposit ranks among the largest in the world. The distinction matters. A reserve is a deposit that can be extracted profitably with current technology and prices, while a resource may be enormous but not yet economically minable, which is exactly Bolivia's position today.
Hard rock versus brine, and the Lithium Triangle
Lithium comes out of the ground two different ways. Australia's supply is overwhelmingly hard rock: spodumene ore is crushed and concentrated at the mine, then shipped abroad for chemical conversion. South America's supply is mostly brine: lithium rich salt water is pumped from beneath high altitude salt flats and left to evaporate in shallow ponds for months before being processed into lithium carbonate. The Lithium Triangle, where the Andean salt flats of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia meet, holds roughly 40 percent of the world's identified lithium resources, the largest single concentration anywhere, and it is worked this way. Chile and Argentina have built real production around it. Bolivia has not: despite sitting on one of the largest deposits on the planet beneath the Salar de Uyuni, commercial output remains close to zero. Two joint ventures, one with a Chinese battery maker and one with a Russian state firm, have been announced to try to change that, but as of today both have been suspended by a Bolivian court over a lack of Indigenous consultation, neither has been ratified by congress, and the government elected in 2025 is reviewing them rather than scrapping them.
China's grip on refining
Mining is only the first step. Raw ore and brine concentrate both need to be converted into battery grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide before they are useful, and that conversion step is heavily concentrated in one country. The International Energy Agency's Global EV Outlook put China's share of global lithium chemical refining at almost 65 percent as of 2023, with most of the remainder processed in Chile. China's dominance runs further down the chain too: it accounts for the large majority of the world's cathode material and battery cell manufacturing capacity, according to CSIS analysis of the sector. A country that mines relatively little of the world's raw lithium still controls most of what happens to it on the way to a battery.
From salt flat to battery pack
- 1
Mining: spodumene ore is crushed in Australia, or lithium rich brine is pumped and evaporated in Chile, Argentina, or Bolivia.
- 2
Conversion: ore or brine concentrate is refined into battery grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, mostly in China.
- 3
Cathode material: the lithium chemical is combined with nickel, cobalt, or manganese to make the cathode active material.
- 4
Cell manufacturing: cathode material, anode material, and electrolyte are assembled into finished battery cells.
- 5
Pack assembly: cells are wired together into the battery packs that power phones, laptops, and electric vehicles.
Why lithium prices crashed, then partly recovered
Lithium carbonate prices in China fell from about 76,000 dollars a tonne in early 2023 to under 10,000 dollars a tonne by late 2024, as new mines in Australia and Africa flooded the market faster than electric vehicle demand could absorb the supply. By September 2026, spot prices had recovered to roughly 20,000 dollars a tonne, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, still far below the 2022 peak but well above the 2024 low. The metal sometimes nicknamed white gold spent 2023 through 2025 as a lesson in how quickly a commodity boom can turn into an oversupply glut once every miner tries to capture the same demand at once.
Quick facts
| Country | 2025 mine production | Reserves |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | ~92,000 t | ~8.4 million t |
| China | ~62,000 t | ~4.6 million t |
| Chile | ~56,000 t | ~9.2 million t |
| Argentina | ~23,000 t | ~4.4 million t |
| Zimbabwe | ~28,000 t | ~0.5 million t |
| Bolivia | Negligible | Not listed; large unproven resources |
Figures from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, lithium chapter. World mine production totaled an estimated 290,000 tonnes of lithium content in 2025; world reserves totaled about 37 million tonnes.