Lithium Mine Production Share: China

## What this measures

China's share of world lithium mine production, in percent: its production divided by the world total, both as printed by the U.S. Geological Survey. A Palanor calculation.

## Why it matters

Lithium is the core metal in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, phones and grid storage. Where it is mined, and how concentrated that is, decides how exposed buyers are to one country's export policy, a mine outage or a price shock. The U.S. government lists it as a critical mineral.

## How to read it

A share near or above half means one country controls the world's supply. Each point is a calendar year, dated December 31; the newest year rests on USGS estimates. Shares across all listed countries plus "other countries" add up to about 100.

## What it does not say

USGS rounds the world total (and estimates the newest year), so a share can be off by a point or so, and the parts can add to a little more or less than 100. Withheld figures ("W") leave a gap. Mine output is not refining: control of processing can be far more concentrated.

## Source

U.S. Geological Survey, *Mineral Commodity Summaries* 2019 to 2026 (yearly; the 2026 edition is https://doi.org/10.3133/mcs2026). Each year's figure is taken from the newest edition that prints it, so later revisions replace earlier estimates; the newest year in each edition is a USGS estimate. Palanor read the figures from the world production and reserves table in each commodity chapter of the PDF editions (pubs.usgs.gov) and checked that the listed countries add up to the rounded world total. Licence: public domain. The report states: "Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report." The matching USGS data release (doi:10.5066/P1WKQ63T) is marked CC0 1.0 Universal. Updated each year when USGS publishes the new edition (late January). Palanor divides the country's figure by the rounded world total in the same edition and year; when the listed producers add up to more than that rounded total, it divides by their sum instead.