Who supplies the world

Lithium

Lithium mined, by lithium content, excluding US output which USGS withholds to protect company data. The latest year is an estimate.

Figures are mine production — the MCS statistics row “Mine production” — as published by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. They measure what left mines in each calendar year: not reserves in the ground, and not refined or smelted output, which for several of these commodities is concentrated in different hands. 2025 is the USGS estimate; 2024 is the reported figure.

World total · 2025 est.
290 kt
World total · 2024
222 kt
Producers listed
9
Top three · 2025 est.
72%

The three largest producers — Australia, China and Chile — account for 72% of the 2025 world estimate of 290 kt.

Share of world production

Each bar is that nation’s share of the published world total for the 2025 estimate. Shares are computed against the world total itself, never against the sum of the producers listed.

  1. 1🇦🇺Australia

    2024: 82.7 kt · 37%2025 est.: 92.0 kt · 32%

  2. 2🇨🇳China

    2024: 41.4 kt · 19%2025 est.: 62.0 kt · 21%

  3. 3🇨🇱Chile

    2024: 48.9 kt · 22%2025 est.: 56.0 kt · 19%

  4. 4🇿🇼Zimbabwe

    2024: 20.0 kt · 9.0%2025 est.: 28.0 kt · 9.7%

  5. 5🇦🇷Argentina

    2024: 13.8 kt · 6.2%2025 est.: 23.0 kt · 7.9%

  6. 6🇧🇷Brazil

    2024: 10.2 kt · 4.6%2025 est.: 12.0 kt · 4.1%

  7. 7🇲🇱Mali

    2024: 770 t · 0.35%2025 est.: 9,400 t · 3.2%

  8. 8🇨🇦Canada

    2024: 4,820 t · 2.2%2025 est.: 5,600 t · 1.9%

  9. 9🇵🇹Portugal

    2024: 380 t · 0.17%2025 est.: 380 t · 0.13%

  10. 10🇺🇸United States

    2024: withheld (W)2025 est.: withheld (W)

Rest of world

2024: below the table's rounding2025 est.: 1,620 t · 0.56%

United States: its figure is withheld by the USGS (“W”) to avoid disclosing company proprietary data. A withheld figure is an absence in this table, never a zero; where the USGS folds withheld production into its world total, that tonnage sits inside Rest of world here.