Economy · The Battery Metal
World Lithium Production
Mined lithium has grown twentyfold since 2000, and nearly tripled since 2021.
- 14,100 t (2000) → 290,000 t (2025, est.)
- Nearly tripled from 2021 to 2025
- Australia, China and Chile lead
- Excludes US output, withheld since 1955
In 2000 the world’s mines and brine operations produced 14,100 tonnes of lithium. Through the 2000s output grew about 5.6% a year, and it fell in 2009. Then lithium-ion batteries took over the story, and growth accelerated. Output doubled roughly every 5.7 years through the 2010s, and from 107,000 tonnes in 2021 it reached an estimated 290,000 in 2025, nearly three times as much in four years. USGS puts the 2025 rise at 31% and ties it to strong demand from the lithium-ion battery market, the high prices of 2021 to early 2023, and new production capacity.
The growth is spreading across the map. In 2025 Australia mined an estimated 92,000 tonnes, China 62,000 and Chile 56,000, and Mali, where two new operations started in 2024, went from 770 tonnes to an estimated 9,400. Not every year rose: output dipped in 2019 and 2020 before the steepest climb on the curve.
The figures are tonnes of lithium contained, the measure USGS has reported since 2000; earlier world figures are gross tonnages of mixed minerals and brine, so the curve starts there. Every world total excludes the United States, whose production USGS has withheld since 1955 to protect company data. Through 2021 the points come from the agency’s historical statistics workbook, each later year from the Mineral Commodity Summaries edition published two years after it, and 2025 is the estimate in the 2026 edition. Estimates move: the 2024 figure was first put at 240,000 tonnes and later revised to 222,000.
| Year | Value | Note | Projected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 14,100 tonnes | ||
| 2001 | 13,100 tonnes | ||
| 2002 | 14,100 tonnes | ||
| 2003 | 16,600 tonnes | ||
| 2004 | 17,700 tonnes | ||
| 2005 | 20,300 tonnes | ||
| 2006 | 22,400 tonnes | ||
| 2007 | 23,300 tonnes | ||
| 2008 | 24,700 tonnes | ||
| 2009 | 17,500 tonnes | ||
| 2010 | 24,400 tonnes | ||
| 2011 | 31,000 tonnes | ||
| 2012 | 32,700 tonnes | ||
| 2013 | 30,300 tonnes | ||
| 2014 | 31,600 tonnes | ||
| 2015 | 32,200 tonnes | ||
| 2016 | 40,200 tonnes | ||
| 2017 | 76,400 tonnes | ||
| 2018 | 91,800 tonnes | ||
| 2019 | 83,800 tonnes | ||
| 2020 | 82,700 tonnes | ||
| 2021 | 107,000 tonnes | ||
| 2022 | 146,000 tonnes | ||
| 2023 | 204,000 tonnes | ||
| 2024 | 222,000 tonnes | ||
| 2025 | 290,000 tonnes | 2025: USGS estimate |