# Where does lithium come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/lithium/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/lithium.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Lithium comes mainly from Australia, which produced 92,000 tonnes in 2025, 32% of the world's 290,000 tonnes (USGS MCS). China (21%), Chile (19%) and Zimbabwe (9.7%) follow; the top five together supply 90%. The biggest exporter of lithium carbonate (HS 283691) is Chile (73% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). The benchmark price, Lithium metal, 99% battery grade, was $156,809/t in July 2026, up 103% from a year earlier (IMF PCPS). Lithium comes from two geological accidents that have nothing in common: granite pegmatites in old, deeply eroded cratons like Western Australia, and salt-lake brines in the high, closed, arid basins of the Andes where evaporation has concentrated lithium for millions of years.

*A light metal extracted from hard-rock spodumene or salt-lake brine and refined into carbonate, hydroxide or metal for battery cathodes.* Also called: Li, lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, spodumene, brine lithium, battery metal.

## Where does lithium come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2025 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 92,000 | 32% |
| 2 | China | 62,000 | 21% |
| 3 | Chile | 56,000 | 19% |
| 4 | Zimbabwe | 28,000 | 9.7% |
| 5 | Argentina | 23,000 | 7.9% |
| 6 | Brazil | 12,000 | 4.1% |
| 7 | Mali | 9,400 | 3.2% |
| 8 | Canada | 5,600 | 1.9% |
| 9 | Portugal | 380 | 0.1% |
| | Rest of world | 1,620 | 0.6% |
| | World | 290,000 | 100% |

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, MCS 2026.

In 2025 Australia mined 92,000 tonnes of lithium content, 32% of the world's 290,000 tonnes (USGS MCS). China followed with 21%, then Chile (19%), Zimbabwe (9.7%) and Argentina (7.9%). The top five account for 90% and only 9 countries mine lithium at all. Reserves are less concentrated than production: Chile holds 25% of the world's 37 million tonnes (USGS MCS).

One caveat before reading those numbers. The United States Geological Survey withholds United States production to avoid disclosing individual company data and excludes it from its world total, so the world figure is slightly understated and the United States does not appear in the ranking even though it produces lithium.

The two sources are worth separating because they behave differently. Hard-rock mining extracts spodumene from pegmatite in Western Australia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Canada, China and Portugal, producing a concentrate that must be shipped to a converter. It can be scaled up in two to three years and responds to price like a normal mine. Brine operations pump lithium-rich water from beneath salt flats in Chile, Argentina and China into evaporation ponds, where sun and wind concentrate it over twelve to eighteen months. Brine is cheaper to run but far slower to expand, and it is exposed to rainfall, altitude and water-rights politics in a way a hard-rock mine is not.

Production means mined lithium content unless stated. It is not refined chemical: a very large share of the world's spodumene is shipped to converters elsewhere, which is why the mining map and the chemical map are different, and why the country that mines the most is not the country that sells the most battery-grade material.

## Who exports and imports lithium?

Australia mines spodumene concentrate and ships it to China, which refines most of the world's battery-grade chemicals; Chile exports finished carbonate directly.

### Exporters of mineral substances not elsewhere specified (includes spodumene) (HS 2530), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | $3.2 billion | 51% |
| 2 | Zimbabwe | $836.7 million | 13% |
| 3 | Brazil | $299.5 million | 4.8% |
| 4 | China | $214.5 million | 3.4% |
| 5 | Germany | $212.5 million | 3.4% |
| 6 | United States | $165.9 million | 2.6% |
| 7 | Nigeria | $160.1 million | 2.5% |
| 8 | South Africa | $103.7 million | 1.6% |
| 9 | Russia | $102.2 million | 1.6% |
| 10 | Spain | $88.9 million | 1.4% |
| 11 | Netherlands | $74.2 million | 1.2% |
| 12 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $71.1 million | 1.1% |
| 13 | United Arab Emirates | $65.9 million | 1% |
| 14 | Italy | $45.8 million | 0.7% |
| 15 | Mexico | $43.8 million | 0.7% |

### Importers of mineral substances not elsewhere specified (includes spodumene) (HS 2530), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $4.5 billion | 72% |
| 2 | South Korea | $159.6 million | 2.5% |
| 3 | United States | $121.7 million | 1.9% |
| 4 | Germany | $104.7 million | 1.7% |
| 5 | France | $99 million | 1.6% |
| 6 | India | $94.9 million | 1.5% |
| 7 | Indonesia | $73.8 million | 1.2% |
| 8 | Japan | $72.1 million | 1.1% |
| 9 | Netherlands | $71.3 million | 1.1% |
| 10 | Italy | $63.1 million | 1% |
| 11 | United Arab Emirates | $60.2 million | 1% |
| 12 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $54.4 million | 0.9% |
| 13 | Poland | $54.1 million | 0.9% |
| 14 | Spain | $42.4 million | 0.7% |
| 15 | Malaysia | $41.9 million | 0.7% |

### Exporters of lithium oxide and hydroxide (HS 282520), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $2 billion | 74% |
| 2 | Chile | $270.9 million | 10% |
| 3 | United States | $178.5 million | 6.6% |
| 4 | Australia | $60.4 million | 2.2% |
| 5 | South Korea | $46.4 million | 1.7% |
| 6 | Japan | $36 million | 1.3% |
| 7 | Netherlands | $35.4 million | 1.3% |
| 8 | Russia | $16.6 million | 0.6% |
| 9 | Germany | $6.4 million | 0.2% |
| 10 | Belgium | $5.5 million | 0.2% |
| 11 | United Kingdom | $5 million | 0.2% |
| 12 | Brazil | $4.6 million | 0.2% |
| 13 | France | $4.6 million | 0.2% |
| 14 | Sweden | $3.6 million | 0.1% |
| 15 | Nigeria | $2.5 million | 0.1% |

### Importers of lithium oxide and hydroxide (HS 282520), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Korea | $1.6 billion | 60% |
| 2 | Japan | $659.6 million | 25% |
| 3 | China | $101.2 million | 3.8% |
| 4 | Germany | $54.3 million | 2% |
| 5 | Sweden | $53.7 million | 2% |
| 6 | Belgium | $34.7 million | 1.3% |
| 7 | India | $24.4 million | 0.9% |
| 8 | Poland | $24 million | 0.9% |
| 9 | Netherlands | $18.4 million | 0.7% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $13.6 million | 0.5% |
| 11 | United States | $12.2 million | 0.5% |
| 12 | Singapore | $8.3 million | 0.3% |
| 13 | France | $8 million | 0.3% |
| 14 | Other Asia, nes | $6.2 million | 0.2% |
| 15 | United Arab Emirates | $5.7 million | 0.2% |

### Exporters of lithium carbonate (HS 283691), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chile | $2.8 billion | 73% |
| 2 | Argentina | $721.1 million | 19% |
| 3 | South Korea | $69.3 million | 1.8% |
| 4 | China | $62.6 million | 1.6% |
| 5 | Germany | $55.7 million | 1.5% |
| 6 | United Kingdom | $24.8 million | 0.6% |
| 7 | United States | $24.2 million | 0.6% |
| 8 | Netherlands | $18.7 million | 0.5% |
| 9 | Bolivia | $15.8 million | 0.4% |
| 10 | France | $8 million | 0.2% |
| 11 | Belgium | $5.4 million | 0.1% |
| 12 | Brazil | $4.5 million | 0.1% |
| 13 | India | $3.8 million | 0.1% |
| 14 | Italy | $2.8 million | 0.1% |
| 15 | Laos | $1.4 million | <0.1% |

### Importers of lithium carbonate (HS 283691), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $2.6 billion | 67% |
| 2 | South Korea | $426.1 million | 11% |
| 3 | Japan | $215.1 million | 5.6% |
| 4 | United States | $194.9 million | 5.1% |
| 5 | Netherlands | $110.5 million | 2.9% |
| 6 | Belgium | $78.1 million | 2% |
| 7 | Germany | $52.1 million | 1.4% |
| 8 | United Kingdom | $36.5 million | 1% |
| 9 | France | $29.1 million | 0.8% |
| 10 | India | $15 million | 0.4% |
| 11 | Italy | $11.4 million | 0.3% |
| 12 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $10.5 million | 0.3% |
| 13 | Spain | $9.4 million | 0.2% |
| 14 | Hungary | $9 million | 0.2% |
| 15 | Other Asia, nes | $7.7 million | 0.2% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Chile was the largest exporter of lithium carbonate (HS 283691) in 2024 with 73% of world export value, ahead of Argentina (19%), on world trade of $3.8 billion (CEPII BACI). China was the largest importer with 67%.

That table is about chemicals, not rock, and it shows the split in the industry clearly. Chile exports finished lithium carbonate directly from its brine operations, so it leads the carbonate trade. Australia mines more lithium than anyone but exports it as spodumene concentrate under a different customs heading, and the concentrate goes overwhelmingly to Chinese converters that turn it into carbonate and hydroxide for cathode makers. Read the export table as a map of chemical conversion, and the production table as the map of geology.

## What does lithium cost?

- Lithium metal, 99% battery grade: $156,809/t in July 2026; 12-month change +103%; 10-year change +50%; all-time high $490,008/t in April 2022; real high (2024 US$) $532,694/t in April 2022 (IMF PCPS).

Prices are monthly benchmark averages that lag the market; not investment advice.

### How it is priced

Be careful with the number on this page. The series shown is Lithium metal, 99% battery grade, which was $156,809/t in July 2026, up 103% from a year earlier (IMF PCPS). That is lithium **metal**, not the carbonate or hydroxide that battery makers actually buy. Lithium metal is a further refining step beyond the chemicals and trades at a large multiple of their price, so this series is useful for direction and useless as a contract reference. Its nominal high was $490,008/t in April 2022.

The prices that matter commercially are battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide delivered into China, Japan and Korea, plus spodumene concentrate on a specified lithium oxide content. All of them are assessed by private price reporting agencies rather than published free, which is why this site cannot quote them. CME and other exchanges list futures that settle against those private assessments, and the CME lithium hydroxide contract referenced in the registry is one of them.

Historically most lithium moved on long-term contracts at negotiated prices, and the spot market was thin. The 2021 to 2023 price cycle changed that: contracts increasingly reference an index, and converters and cathode makers now hedge. Grade and impurity specifications are unusually important, because a battery cathode is intolerant of sodium, potassium, iron and magnesium, so chemical-grade and battery-grade material are genuinely different products with a persistent price gap.

## What moves the price of lithium?

### Electric vehicle sales

Batteries take the overwhelming majority of lithium demand, and an electric car contains tens of kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalent against grams in a phone. Vehicle sales growth, subsidy changes and the mix between battery chemistries therefore set demand almost entirely, and forecasts of that growth move the price years ahead of any physical shortage.

### Cathode chemistry

Lithium iron phosphate cells use lithium carbonate and no nickel or cobalt; high-nickel cells use lithium hydroxide. The market share of each chemistry decides not just how much lithium is needed but which chemical, and converters cannot switch product instantly. A shift toward iron phosphate raises carbonate demand relative to hydroxide even if total lithium demand is unchanged.

### Spodumene supply response

Hard-rock mines can be brought on in two to three years, far faster than brine, so they set the marginal supply. When prices spike, Australian and African spodumene expands first and hardest, which is why the 2021 to 2023 boom ended in oversupply rather than persistent shortage.

### Conversion capacity

Mining lithium and making battery-grade chemical are separate businesses in separate countries. Converter capacity, concentrated in China, is the real bottleneck between rock and cathode, and a shortage of qualified conversion capacity can leave concentrate stranded while chemical prices rise.

### Water and community consent in the brine triangle

Brine extraction moves large volumes of water in some of the driest inhabited places on earth, and the resulting disputes over water rights, indigenous consent and royalties have delayed projects in Chile and Argentina for years. This is a permitting constraint rather than a geological one, and it does not respond to price.

### Resource nationalism

Chile has moved toward state participation in new lithium projects, Mexico nationalised its lithium, Indonesia and Zimbabwe have restricted raw exports, and Argentina's provincial governments set their own terms. Ownership rules change the timing and location of new supply more reliably than the price does.

### Recycling

Battery recycling returns lithium along with nickel and cobalt, but the volume available depends on how many batteries reached end of life a decade ago, not on today's price. Recycling will eventually damp the cycle; for now the fleet is too young for it to matter much.

## How is lithium produced?

Hard-rock production starts with an open pit in a pegmatite. The ore is crushed and passed through dense media separation and flotation to produce a spodumene concentrate of about six percent lithium oxide, which is what actually gets shipped. At the converter, the concentrate is roasted at over a thousand degrees to convert the crystal structure into a form that acid can attack, then leached with sulfuric acid, purified, and precipitated as lithium carbonate or reacted further to lithium hydroxide.

Brine production is slower and stranger. Lithium-bearing water is pumped from beneath a salt flat into a sequence of shallow evaporation ponds, where over roughly a year and a half sun and wind remove water and successive salts crystallize out: first halite, then sylvite, then carnallite, leaving a concentrated lithium liquor. That liquor is treated to remove magnesium and boron and precipitated as carbonate. Yield is modest and recovery from the ponds is imperfect, which is why direct lithium extraction technologies, which pull lithium from brine with sorbents and return the water, attract so much attention.

Battery-grade material must then be purified to very tight limits on sodium, potassium, iron, calcium and magnesium, because these contaminate the cathode and shorten cell life. Qualification of a new chemical plant by a cathode maker takes many months of testing, which is why converter capacity cannot simply be switched on.

The industry quotes several units and they are easy to confuse: lithium content, lithium carbonate equivalent, lithium oxide in concentrate, and metal. The figures on this page are lithium content as reported by the United States Geological Survey. Multiplying by about 5.32 converts lithium content to lithium carbonate equivalent.

## What is lithium used for?

Rechargeable batteries dominate and the share has grown steadily; electric vehicles, grid storage and consumer electronics together take the great majority of world lithium supply. Within that, the split between lithium iron phosphate and nickel-rich chemistries determines whether the demand is for carbonate or hydroxide.

The older industrial uses persist but are now a small minority. Lithium compounds lower the melting point and improve durability in ceramics and glass, including glass-ceramic cooktops and specialty glass; lithium greases stay stable across a wide temperature range and are used in vehicles and aviation; lithium is used in continuous casting mold flux for steel, in air treatment as a carbon dioxide absorber, in aluminium smelting, in polymer catalysis and in pharmaceuticals as a mood stabiliser. Lithium metal itself, which is what the price series on this page tracks, is used in primary batteries, in alloys with aluminium and magnesium for aerospace, and as a chemical reagent.

## Supply chain and chokepoints

The chain has an unusual shape: mining is spread across Australia, South America and Africa, while conversion is concentrated overwhelmingly in China, and cathode and cell manufacturing are concentrated in China, Korea and Japan. The narrow point is not the ore, of which there is a great deal, but the qualified chemical conversion capacity in between, and the fact that so much of it sits in one country is the reason lithium appears on every critical minerals list.

Logistics themselves are undemanding. Spodumene concentrate is a bulk mineral shipped in ordinary carriers, and lithium carbonate travels in bags and containers. The constraints are upstream and downstream: pond capacity and water permits in the brine triangle, and cathode qualification schedules at the far end.

The genuine single points of failure are political and hydrological rather than industrial. A change in Chilean or Argentine ownership rules, an Indonesian or Zimbabwean export restriction, or a drought in the Atacama affects more supply than any plant outage would. Meanwhile the price cycle itself is a risk: the 2021 to 2023 spike drew in so much hard-rock capacity that the subsequent slump closed marginal mines, and that stop-start pattern is likely to repeat because demand growth is policy-driven and supply growth is capital-driven.

## Key companies

- Albemarle: miner and converter, United States, listed (ALB)
- SQM (Sociedad Química y Minera): brine producer and converter, Chile, listed (SQM)
- Ganfeng Lithium: converter and miner, China, listed (002460)
- Tianqi Lithium: converter and miner, China, listed (002466)
- Pilbara Minerals: spodumene miner, Australia, listed (PLS)
- Arcadium Lithium (Rio Tinto Lithium): brine and hard-rock producer, United Kingdom

## Timeline

- 1991-06: The lithium-ion battery is commercialised. The first commercial lithium-ion cells created a demand source that would eventually consume most of world lithium production and turned an industrial chemical into a strategic mineral. (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2019/summary/)
- 1997: Atacama brine production scales up. Low-cost Chilean brine displaced North American and Russian mineral production and set the cost floor that constrained hard-rock projects for the next fifteen years. (https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/mineral-commodity-summaries)
- 2010-01: Western Australian spodumene begins its expansion. Greenbushes and later projects showed that hard-rock lithium could be scaled quickly, giving the market a supply source that responds to price in years rather than decades. (https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/mineral-commodity-summaries)
- 2016: Chinese conversion capacity takes over the chemical step. Converters built to process imported spodumene made China the source of most battery-grade carbonate and hydroxide, separating the mining map from the chemical map permanently. (https://www.iea.org/topics/critical-minerals)
- 2020-09: Lithium iron phosphate returns to favor. Cell designs that removed nickel and cobalt raised demand for lithium carbonate relative to hydroxide and changed which converters were valuable. (https://www.iea.org/topics/critical-minerals)
- 2021-01: The price cycle begins. Electric vehicle sales outran conversion capacity and lithium chemical prices rose by an order of magnitude over two years, triggering a global exploration and construction boom. (https://data.imf.org/en/datasets/IMF.RES:PCPS)
- 2022-04: Mexico nationalises lithium. A reform reserving lithium to the state removed a prospective supplier from private investment and signalled a wider turn toward resource nationalism in the sector. (https://www.gob.mx/)
- 2023-04: Chile announces state participation in new projects. The largest brine producer moved to a model of state involvement in future contracts, adding political timing risk to the world's lowest-cost supply source. (https://www.gob.cl/)
- 2023-12: Oversupply arrives. Australian and African spodumene expansions commissioned during the spike met slower-than-expected demand growth, and chemical prices fell back sharply, closing marginal mines. (https://data.imf.org/en/datasets/IMF.RES:PCPS)
- 2025-01: Direct lithium extraction reaches commercial scale. Sorbent-based extraction that returns water to the aquifer began operating at scale, offering faster ramp-up than evaporation ponds and opening brine resources outside the Andes. (https://www.iea.org/topics/critical-minerals)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most lithium

Australia mined 92,000 tonnes of lithium content in 2025, 32% of the world's 290,000 tonnes (USGS MCS). China was second with 21%. The United States Geological Survey withholds United States output from its world total, so both figures slightly understate the true total.

### where does lithium come from geologically

From two settings. Granite pegmatites in old eroded cratons yield spodumene, mined in Australia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Canada and China. Salt-lake brines in high, closed, arid basins in Chile, Argentina and China yield lithium-rich water concentrated by evaporation. Hard rock scales in years; brine takes far longer.

### how much lithium is left

Chile holds 25% of world reserves of 37 million tonnes (USGS MCS). Reserves mean the portion economically extractable at current prices and technology, so the number rises with price and with drilling. Known resources are considerably larger than reserves.

### why did lithium prices crash after 2023

The 2021 to 2023 spike drew in Australian and African hard-rock capacity that can be built in two to three years. When that supply arrived while electric vehicle growth slowed, the market moved from shortage to surplus and prices fell sharply, closing the highest-cost mines.

### is the lithium price on this page what battery makers pay

No. The series is lithium metal, a further refining step beyond battery chemicals, and it trades at a large multiple of carbonate and hydroxide prices. The chemicals battery makers buy are assessed by private agencies and are not published free, so this site shows direction rather than a contract reference.

### what is lithium used for

Rechargeable batteries take the great majority, principally for electric vehicles, grid storage and electronics. Smaller established uses include ceramics and glass, lubricating greases, steel casting flux, air treatment, aluminium smelting, polymer catalysis and pharmaceuticals.

### why is China so important to lithium if it does not mine the most

Because mining and chemical conversion are separate businesses. Most spodumene concentrate is shipped to Chinese converters that turn it into battery-grade carbonate and hydroxide. Conversion capacity, not ore, is the narrow point in the chain, and it is heavily concentrated.

### what moves the lithium price

Electric vehicle sales and battery chemistry mix on the demand side; spodumene expansion speed, conversion capacity, water and consent constraints in the Andes, and resource nationalism on the supply side. Because demand is policy-driven and supply is capital-driven, the market swings between shortage and glut.

## Sources

- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, MCS 2026, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Public domain (US Government work). https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/mineral-commodity-summaries
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37
- IMF Primary Commodity Price System (PCPS), 2026-08-06, fetched 6 September 2026. License: © International Monetary Fund. All rights reserved (IMF terms of use). https://data.imf.org/en/datasets/IMF.RES:PCPS

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where does lithium come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/lithium/.