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Where are they getting all the lithium from, anyone know? I thought we would have a major shortage by now.

philipkglass 1y ago
The top lithium mining country is currently Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_lithium_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_lithium_p... Here's a USGS report on global lithium from 1996: https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/mineral-pubs/lithium/lithimcs96.pdf https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/... And the same report from 2025: https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-lithium.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-lithium.pd... Over those 29 years world production shot up from 6,300 tons in 1995 to 240,000 tons in 2024. At the same time reserves grew from 2.2 million tons to 30 million tons. How can reserves go up even as we're mining lithium faster? It's because reserves are defined by a combination of economics and technology. The Earth's crust contains 20 ppm of lithium now and in 1996 (or a million years ago, for that matter). The geology doesn't change but the effort put into identifying potential sources of lithium and means of extracting and purifying lithium does change. Geologically speaking, the Earth has a lot of lithium. World lithium reserves have been increasing faster than they have been depleted, because the industrial demand that causes reserve depletion also spurs additional research to identify potential lithium sources and extraction processes.
- profsummergig 1y ago
  Capitalism doing its (positive) thing. Awesome to hear, thank you!
standardUser 1y ago
Mostly Australian mines. There's no projected shortage that I have ever heard of. There's plenty of Lithium in them there hills.
- profsummergig 1y ago
  > There's plenty of Lithium in them there hills. Good to hear! Reason why I thought there was a shortage was because there was a major push to recover Li from old phones a few years back. I have 4-5 old unused phones lying around my house. (Mostly because there's old text messages in them that I'm hoarding.) I presume it's the same for others. And I was wondering whether there's enough Li for new phones.
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    The nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper in old batteries is valuable, not the lithium.
    - profsummergig 1y ago
      Interesting. Thanks!
jillesvangurp 1y ago
You thought wrong. There's plenty of lithium on this planet. And we keep discovering more convenient sources and ways to extract it. We have a surplus. That's why kg prices have come down.
- profsummergig 1y ago
  Good to hear!
dzhiurgis 1y ago
Lithium's heyday is over. New residential batteries are already using sodium instead. Solid state (i.e. for planes) have higher potential when using sodium than lithium.
- profsummergig 1y ago
  Interesting. I was aware of Sodium and potentially Zinc being used for stationery situations. I thought Lithium was used because it was lighter than the others. Good to know planes can use Sodium batteries. There's plenty of Sodium!

The top lithium mining country is currently Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_lithium_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_lithium_p... Here's a USGS report on global lithium from 1996: https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/mineral-pubs/lithium/lithimcs96.pdf https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/... And the same report from 2025: https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-lithium.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-lithium.pd... Over those 29 years world production shot up from 6,300 tons in 1995 to 240,000 tons in 2024. At the same time reserves grew from 2.2 million tons to 30 million tons. How can reserves go up even as we're mining lithium faster? It's because reserves are defined by a combination of economics and technology. The Earth's crust contains 20 ppm of lithium now and in 1996 (or a million years ago, for that matter). The geology doesn't change but the effort put into identifying potential sources of lithium and means of extracting and purifying lithium does change. Geologically speaking, the Earth has a lot of lithium. World lithium reserves have been increasing faster than they have been depleted, because the industrial demand that causes reserve depletion also spurs additional research to identify potential lithium sources and extraction processes.

profsummergig 1y ago
Capitalism doing its (positive) thing. Awesome to hear, thank you!

standardUser 1y ago

Mostly Australian mines. There's no projected shortage that I have ever heard of. There's plenty of Lithium in them there hills.

profsummergig 1y ago
> There's plenty of Lithium in them there hills. Good to hear! Reason why I thought there was a shortage was because there was a major push to recover Li from old phones a few years back. I have 4-5 old unused phones lying around my house. (Mostly because there's old text messages in them that I'm hoarding.) I presume it's the same for others. And I was wondering whether there's enough Li for new phones.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  The nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper in old batteries is valuable, not the lithium.
  - profsummergig 1y ago
    Interesting. Thanks!

jillesvangurp 1y ago

You thought wrong. There's plenty of lithium on this planet. And we keep discovering more convenient sources and ways to extract it. We have a surplus. That's why kg prices have come down.

profsummergig 1y ago
Good to hear!

dzhiurgis 1y ago

Lithium's heyday is over. New residential batteries are already using sodium instead. Solid state (i.e. for planes) have higher potential when using sodium than lithium.

profsummergig 1y ago
Interesting. I was aware of Sodium and potentially Zinc being used for stationery situations. I thought Lithium was used because it was lighter than the others. Good to know planes can use Sodium batteries. There's plenty of Sodium!