Most of the world’s lithium comes from two sources: hard rock mines and underground brine deposits. Australia produces roughly 37% of global supply by blasting a mineral called spodumene out of open pits, while Chile contributes about 21% by pumping salty water from beneath the earth’s surface and letting the sun do the work. China rounds out the top three at 17%. Beyond industrial extraction, humans also take in trace amounts of lithium through food, drinking water, and, for people with bipolar disorder, prescription medication.
Hard Rock Mining
Australia’s dominance in lithium production comes from mining spodumene, a mineral that contains lithium locked inside its crystal structure. Companies blast it from open-pit mines, crush the ore, and then use heat and chemical processing to separate lithium from the surrounding rock. This method is faster than brine extraction and can ramp up production relatively quickly to meet demand, which is one reason Australia overtook Chile as the world’s top producer in 2017.
Hard rock mining looks a lot like any other large-scale mining operation: heavy equipment, massive pits, crushing facilities, and chemical plants. The lithium concentrate produced at the mine site is typically shipped to refineries (often in China) where it’s converted into battery-grade lithium compounds.
Brine Extraction
Sixty percent of the world’s known lithium reserves sit in brine deposits across South America’s “lithium triangle,” spanning parts of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. These deposits are pools of extremely salty water trapped underground, sometimes in ecologically sensitive areas like salt flats.
Traditional brine extraction is straightforward but slow. Workers pump the salty liquid into large, shallow evaporation ponds and wait for the sun and wind to concentrate the lithium over 12 to 18 months. The process is cheap and low-energy, but it consumes enormous volumes of water in regions that are already arid. It also recovers only a portion of the lithium in the original brine.
Direct Lithium Extraction
A newer approach called direct lithium extraction (DLE) is gaining traction as an alternative to evaporation ponds. DLE uses techniques borrowed from water treatment, including specialized filters, chemical sorbents, and membranes that selectively grab lithium ions out of brine while leaving other minerals behind. Think of it like a molecular sieve tuned specifically for lithium.
The advantages are significant. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, DLE requires 99% less water per ton of lithium than traditional brine methods. It also works faster, recovers more lithium from each batch of brine, and takes up far less land. One especially promising application is pulling lithium from geothermal brines, the hot, mineral-rich water that already comes up from underground at geothermal power plants. This approach essentially treats lithium as a byproduct of renewable energy production.
Lithium in Food and Water
Lithium isn’t just an industrial commodity. It’s a naturally occurring trace element in soil, water, and food. Your body absorbs it the same way it absorbs other minerals: through the gut, with 80 to 100% of ingested lithium making it into the bloodstream.
The richest dietary sources are plant-based. Leafy vegetables contain the most, followed by bulb vegetables like onions and garlic, legumes, and grains. Nuts stand out: almonds and peanuts can contain around 8 to 10 milligrams per kilogram, and soybeans are similarly high. Tomatoes, peas, beans, and lentils are also notable sources. At the bottom of the list are meats, egg yolks, and dairy products, which contain very little.
Drinking water is another source, though concentrations vary enormously by geography. In the United States, lithium levels in groundwater range from less than 1 to over 1,000 micrograms per liter depending on the local geology. Sandstone and karst limestone regions tend to produce higher concentrations. Standard water treatment does almost nothing to remove lithium, so whatever is in the source water ends up in your tap. Interestingly, multiple studies have found an association between higher lithium levels in drinking water and lower suicide rates in those communities, though the amounts are far below what’s used in psychiatric treatment.
Lithium as Medicine
For people with bipolar disorder, lithium is one of the oldest and most effective mood stabilizers available. It comes as a prescription in three forms: tablets, capsules, and an oral liquid. The doses used therapeutically are vastly higher than anything you’d encounter in food or water.
The gap between an effective dose and a toxic one is unusually narrow. Doctors aim for a blood concentration between 0.8 and 1.2 milliequivalents per liter during acute episodes, and 0.8 to 1.0 for long-term maintenance. Levels above 2.0 are considered toxic. Because of this tight window, people taking lithium need regular blood tests to make sure their levels stay in range. Factors like hydration, kidney function, and other medications can all shift the balance.
Why Demand Keeps Growing
The surge in electric vehicle production and grid-scale battery storage has transformed lithium from a niche commodity into a strategic resource. Lithium-ion batteries power everything from phones to cars to backup systems for solar farms. Global production hit roughly 237,000 tonnes in 2024, and that number is expected to climb as battery technology expands.
This is why newer extraction methods like DLE matter so much. Traditional mining and evaporation can’t scale fast enough on their own without significant environmental trade-offs, particularly water use in already dry regions. Tapping geothermal brines, recycling lithium from spent batteries, and improving recovery rates from existing sources are all part of the push to keep supply in step with demand.