The Global Lithium Supply Landscape: Mapping the World's Top Reserve Holders

The battery metal market is heating up. As electric vehicle adoption accelerates worldwide and energy storage systems become increasingly critical to grid stability, understanding where the planet’s lithium reserves are concentrated is essential for anyone tracking the transition to clean energy.

Why Lithium Reserves Matter More Than You Think

It’s easy to focus on production numbers—which country mined the most lithium last year—but reserves tell a different story. They reveal which nations hold the long-term supply advantage and where future growth will come from.

The numbers are striking: global lithium reserves reached 30 million metric tons as of 2024. Meanwhile, demand is accelerating sharply. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, EV and energy storage system (ESS) demand for lithium is forecast to surge over 30 percent year-on-year in 2025. That’s a massive jump, driven by the fact that lithium-ion batteries power not just electric vehicles but also the renewable energy infrastructure we’re building globally.

The tight coupling between lithium availability and energy transition timelines means that nations with substantial reserves—and the infrastructure to extract them—will wield outsized influence in the coming decades.

The Big Four: Who Controls the World’s Lithium

1. Chile Leads With Nearly One-Third of Global Reserves

Chile dominates the global lithium landscape with a staggering 9.3 million metric tons of reserves. The Salar de Atacama salt flat alone accounts for roughly 33 percent of the world’s lithium reserve base, making it the single most important lithium resource on the planet.

The South American nation was the second-largest lithium producer in 2024, outputting 44,000 metric tons. Major extraction companies operate across the Atacama, benefiting from decades of established infrastructure and expertise.

What’s particularly notable is Chile’s recent shift toward resource nationalism. In 2023, President Gabriel Boric announced plans for partial nationalization, positioning the state-owned mining company to take controlling stakes in major lithium operations. The government signaled that lithium should serve national economic goals, not just shareholder returns. This strategy reflects growing recognition that controlling reserves—not just mining them—is where long-term value lies.

By early 2025, Chile opened bidding for additional lithium extraction contracts across multiple salt flats, signaling ambitious expansion plans. The auction process itself demonstrates how strategically important these resources have become at the policy level.

2. Australia: Hard Rock Deposits and Dominant 2024 Production

Australia holds 7 million metric tons of lithium reserves, making it the second-largest holder globally. But here’s the key difference: most Australian reserves exist as hard-rock spodumene deposits in Western Australia, contrasting sharply with the brine-based resources of Chile and Argentina.

Despite having fewer total reserves than Chile, Australia was actually the world’s largest lithium producer in 2024—a testament to the efficiency of its hard-rock extraction methods and the maturity of its mining sector. The Greenbushes mine, operating continuously since 1985, remains one of the world’s most productive lithium operations.

Recently, however, the sector faced headwinds. Plummeting lithium prices in 2024 forced several Australian producers to dial back operations. Some projects were put on hold as companies waited for market conditions to improve.

The research landscape is shifting, though. A 2023 study led by University of Sydney researchers and Geoscience Australia mapped lithium distribution in Australian soils, revealing untapped potential beyond the established Western Australia mining zones. Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria all showed significant lithium-bearing regions, suggesting the country has more room to grow production if prices recover and demand justifies investment.

3. Argentina: The Rising Competitor

Argentina rounds out the Lithium Triangle with 4 million metric tons of reserves and produced 18,000 metric tons in 2024. While that ranks fourth globally in production volume, Argentina’s growth trajectory is striking.

The country sits alongside Chile and Bolivia in what’s known as the Lithium Triangle—a region that collectively holds more than half of the planet’s lithium reserves. This geographic concentration gives South America substantial leverage in the global supply chain.

Argentina committed to aggressively developing its reserves, with government investment pledges approaching US$4.2 billion in recent years. By 2024, major expansion projects were greenlit, with producers targeting dramatic capacity increases. Rio Tinto’s announcement of a US$2.5 billion expansion at the Rincon salar exemplifies this momentum, with plans to scale production from 3,000 MT to 60,000 MT by 2028.

The competitive advantage? Argentina’s lithium remains cost-competitive even in low-price environments, giving the nation room to expand profitably during downturns when higher-cost producers scale back.

4. China: Reserves Plus Processing Power

China holds 3 million metric tons in reserves but punches well above its weight in the global lithium market. The nation produced 41,000 MT in 2024 and continues expanding.

What makes China’s position uniquely powerful isn’t just reserve volume—it’s vertical integration. China hosts the majority of the world’s lithium-processing facilities and produces most of the world’s lithium-ion batteries. Essentially, China controls multiple chokepoints in the supply chain, from raw material processing to finished battery assembly.

Interestingly, despite these advantages, China still imports most of its lithium, primarily from Australia. This gap between domestic reserves and industrial demand highlights just how voracious the global appetite for the battery metal has become.

In late 2024, the U.S. accused China of engaging in predatory lithium pricing—flooding markets to undercut competitors and consolidate market share. Whether intentional or not, China’s scale in processing gives it leverage over global pricing.

Recent developments suggest China is accelerating its resource base too. Early 2025 reports indicated the discovery of a massive 2,800-kilometer lithium belt in western China, with proven reserves exceeding 6.5 million tons and potential resources surpassing 30 million tons. These new discoveries could substantially shift the global reserve picture in coming years.

The Secondary Players: Don’t Sleep on Emerging Reserves

While the Big Four dominate, other nations are quietly building lithium capabilities:

• United States: 1.8 million metric tons
• Canada: 1.2 million metric tons
• Zimbabwe: 480,000 metric tons
• Brazil: 390,000 metric tons
• Portugal: 60,000 metric tons (Europe’s largest)

Portugal’s position is worth noting for European supply chains. As the continent seeks to reduce lithium import dependency, Portuguese reserves—though modest on a global scale—take on outsized strategic importance. The nation produced 380 metric tons in 2024, a steady baseline for European battery manufacturing.

What This Means for the Energy Transition

The concentration of lithium reserves is striking: Chile, Australia, Argentina, and China together control roughly 60 percent of the world’s known reserves. This creates both opportunity and risk.

On the opportunity side, countries with reserves are racing to develop extraction capacity and attract battery manufacturing investments. The geopolitics of energy transition increasingly revolve around lithium geography.

On the risk side, supply chain concentration means that disruptions—whether political, environmental, or economic—could constrain global EV and energy storage growth. Diversification of both reserves and processing capacity will be essential to meeting the projected 30+ percent annual lithium demand growth through 2025 and beyond.

As the decade progresses, expect more investment in secondary reserves, new extraction technologies, and strategic reserve acquisitions by nations seeking to secure their energy transition pathways.