View into a Tesla Model S® electric car showing the 

lithium-ion battery covering most of the bottom of the 

chassis. Various battery configurations use between 

about 10 and 22 kilograms of lithium. Photo by Oleg 

Alexandrov, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

Li

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3

6.941

As part of a broad mission to 

conduct research and provide 

information on nonfuel mineral 

resources, the U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) supports science 

to understand

•	 How and where lithium 

resources form and 

concentrate in the 

Earth’s crust

•	 How lithium resources 

interact with the environment 

to affect human and 

ecosystem health

•	 Trends in the supply of 

and demand for lithium

in the domestic and 

international markets

•	 Where undiscovered sources

of lithium might be found

Why is this information important?

Read on to learn about lithium

and the important role it plays in 

the national economy, in national 

security, and in the lives of 

Americans every day. 

Lithium, which has the chemical symbol Li and an atomic number of 3, is the first metal in the 

periodic table. With a specific gravity of 0.534, it is about half as dense as water and the lightest of all 

metals. In its pure elemental form it is a soft, silvery-white metal, but it is highly reactive and therefore 

never is found as a metal in nature. 

Lithium has an average concentration of 20 parts per million in the Earth’s continental crust. It 

is more abundant than some of the better-known metals, including tin and silver. Lithium occurs in 

most rocks as a trace element, with the lithium substituting for magnesium in common rock-forming 

minerals. It was first recognized as an element in 1817 when the Swedish chemist Johan Arfvedson 

analyzed the mineral petalite. The metal itself was first isolated in useful quantities in 1855. In 1869, 

Dmitiri Mendeleev correctly positioned it adjacent to sodium, with the alkali metals, in his thenrevolutionary periodic table of the elements. 

How Do We Use Lithium?

Lithium has many uses, the most prominent 

being in batteries for cell phones, laptops, and 

electric and hybrid vehicles. Many other uses are 

behind the scenes and not obvious to consumers. 

Lithium is added to glasses and ceramics for 

strength and resistance to temperature change, it 

is used in heat-resistant greases and lubricants, 

and it is alloyed with aluminum and copper to 

save weight in airframe structural components. 

Lithium is used in certain psychiatric medications 

and in dental ceramics. The lighter of two lithium 

isotopes, 6

Li, was used in the production of 

tritium for nuclear weapons. Worldwide lithium 

consumption in 2012 by end-use industry was as 

follows: ceramics and glass, 35%; batteries, 29%; 

greases, 9%; air treatment, 5%; metallurgy, 6%; polymers, 5%; aluminum refining, 1%; and other uses, 10%.

The use with the greatest potential benefit to the most people in the world is in rechargeable 

batteries, which take advantage of lithium’s light weight and high electrochemical potential. 

Rechargeable batteries make it possible to power cars and trucks by using renewable, carbon-neutral 

sources of energy (for example, solar, hydro, or wind) instead of gasoline or diesel. As battery technology

improves, lithium is expected to play a key role in efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that are

responsible for global warming.

Where Does Lithium Come From?

Worldwide sources of lithium are broken down by ore-deposit type as follows: closed-basin brines,

58%; pegmatites and related granites, 26%; lithium-enriched clays, 7%; oilfield brines, 3%; geothermal 

brines, 3%; and lithium-enriched zeolites, 3% (2013 statistics). 

Closed-basin brines are currently the most important source of lithium. Dissolved lithium occurs 

in concentrations up to a few thousand parts per million in the saline groundwater beneath certain 

playas and salt lakes. Brine deposits form in closed basins in tectonically active, arid regions. The 

lithium builds up over time by weathering of rocks that contained only trace quantities. The lithium is 

subsequently extracted from these deposits by pumping the brine to the surface, where the lithium is 

concentrated by evaporation in a series of solar ponds. This lithium-rich solution is then processed into 

lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. The world’s main brine producers are Chile, Argentina, China, 

and the United States. An enormous brine deposit in Bolivia has not yet been put into production.

Pegmatites are a type of granite characterized by giant crystals of the common rock-forming minerals 

quartz, feldspar, and mica. A few pegmatites —termed “LCT ” —  are enriched in the rare metals lithium, 

cesium, and tantalum, and it is these LCT pegmatites that are mined for lithium. The most important lithium 

ore mineral is spodumene. The largest recorded spodumene crystal in a pegmatite measured 14 meters 

(40 feet) in length. The world has hundreds of LCT pegmatite deposits, but only a handful of large ones 

are currently producing lithium, with the greatest production from deposits in Australia, Zimbabwe, 

Brazil, China, and Portugal. Lithium pegmatites are mined in open pits or in underground mines.

Telephone-pole-sized crystals of the 

lithium ore mineral spodumene, from 

the Etta pegmatite, South Dakota.

Note the miner for scale, inside red 

circle. From Schaller (1916, USGS 

Bulletin 610).

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2014–3035

April 2014

USGS Mineral Resources Program

Lithium—For Harnessing Renewable Energy
ISSN 2327– 6932 (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20143035

Did you know... Lithium is one of only three elements that were produced during the primordial Big Bang about

 13.8 billion years ago. All other elements formed subsequently in stars or supernovas.

Watermelon tourmaline—green 

outside and pink within—is a 

lithium-bearing gemstone. In 

1973, a single gem-filled pocket in 

a pegmatite in Maine produced 

about two tons of tourmaline that 

would be valued today (for gems 

and mineral specimens) at about 

$40 million. Courtesy of the

Mineralogical & Geological 

Museum at Harvard University, 

specimen number MGMH 125525, 

Dunton Mine, Newry, Maine. 

Copyright 2012, President and 

Fellows of Harvard College. 

All rights reserved.

Text prepared by Dwight Bradley and Brian Jaskula.

Lithium-brine evaporating ponds at Clayton Valley, Nevada. The dark pond 

at the top is 1.7 kilometers long. Photo courtesy of Doc Searles, downloaded 

from Wikimedia Commons. 

1 centimeter

The USGS Mineral Resources Program is the principal 

Federal provider of research and information on lithium 

and other nonfuel mineral resources.

For more information, please contact:

Mineral Resources Program Coordinator

U.S. Geological Survey

913 National Center

Reston, VA 20192

Telephone: 703–648–6100

Fax: 703–648–6057

Email: minerals@usgs.gov

Home page: http://minerals.usgs.gov

For More Information

• On production and consumption of lithium:

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/lithium/

• On lithium deposit models:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1006/OF13-1006.pdf

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1008/OF13-1008.pdf

Worldwide Supply of and Demand for Lithium

There are over 39 million tons of lithium resources worldwide. 

Of this resource, the USGS estimates there to be approximately 

13 million tons of current economically recoverable lithium reserves. 

Recycling of batteries is expected to play a key role in the supply of 

lithium in the medium to long term. Lithium is a resource that can be 

recycled repeatedly, thereby reducing future needs for new sources

of lithium. 

Prices for lithium metal and lithium compounds are not published,

but approximate values can be gleaned from industry sources. Batterygrade lithium carbonate is currently (2013) valued between $6,500 and 

$7,000 per metric ton. In 2010, Japan imported pure lithium metal at a 

cost of $73,546 per metric ton ($33.36 per pound). 

How Do We Ensure Adequate Supplies of Lithium for the Future?

Lithium, like most mineral resources, is mined and traded globally. 

The United States is fairly well endowed with lithium deposits that might 

be exploited in the future, even though current production is fairly limited. 

As of 2013, the only domestic production is from the lithium brines in 

Clayton Valley, Nevada. Production of lithium from the King’s Mountain 

pegmatite district in North Carolina ceased in the early 1990s, leaving a 

substantial, though currently uneconomic, resource still in the ground.

To help predict where future lithium supplies might be located, 

USGS scientists study how and where identified resources are 

concentrated in the Earth’s crust, and they use that knowledge to assess 

the likelihood that undiscovered resources also exist. Techniques to 

assess mineral resources have been developed and refined by the USGS 

to support the stewardship of Federal lands and to better evaluate mineral 

resource availability in a global context. The USGS also compiles 

statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and 

flow of lithium. These data are used to provide information for domestic 

and international policymakers and decisionmakers in the public and 

private sectors.

Did you know... There are about six billion cell phones in the world, about as many as there are people, and most 

 of these are powered by a lithium battery.

Did you know... An estimated 300 million people alive today will suffer from bipolar disorder at some point in

 their lives. Millions benefit from a daily dosage of lithium carbonate.

Li

[He]2s1

3

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Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes 

and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Lithium battery courtesy of Krzysztof Woznica, downloaded from Wikimedia 

Commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Battery-lithium-cr2032.jpg