Chile mines the most lithium in the triangle even though it holds the smallest share of the resource

What the lithium triangle is

Lithium is the light metal used in nearly every rechargeable battery, and 88% of all lithium used worldwide goes into batteries, according to the United States Geological Survey. The International Energy Agency names 3 countries the lithium triangle, because most of the estimated lithium resource anywhere in the world sits in the salt flats across the shared borders of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The Geological Survey counts what each country has in the ground in metric tons of lithium content, meaning the pure metal rather than a compound. Argentina holds an estimated 28,000,000 metric tons, the most of the 3. Bolivia holds 23,000,000 metric tons, the second largest amount estimated anywhere in the world. Chile holds 13,000,000 metric tons, the least of the 3. These figures are resources, a broad estimate of what is believed to be present. A narrower category, reserves, counts only lithium that is both proven and economical to mine right now. The Survey lists 9,200,000 metric tons of reserves for Chile and 4,400,000 metric tons for Argentina. Bolivia has no reserves or production line in the same table at all.

Chile and Argentina mine what Bolivia has not yet reached

Turn to what actually comes out of the ground and the ranking flips. The Survey estimates Chile mined 56,000 metric tons of lithium content in 2025, and Argentina mined 23,000 metric tons, less than half what Chile produced. Together Chile and Argentina account for more than a third of world lithium reserves and a quarter of world lithium production, in figures the International Energy Agency reports for the 2 countries combined.

Bolivia counts fast growth from a small base

The Bolivian state lithium company, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, reports its own production in a different unit, tons of lithium carbonate, a compound rather than the pure metal the Survey counts. The 2 sets of figures do not compare directly. By that measure, output climbed from 175.72 tons in 2020 to 2,064.46 tons in 2024, a rise of 118% in the final year alone, according to figures the company itself reports.

The money behind the price swing

Chile earned 2,639.2 million dollars from lithium product exports in the first 5 months of 2026, according to the government mining commission Cochilco, with the monthly value 27% higher in May than in January within that same period. Lithium carbonate alone brought in 1,949.3 million dollars, 74% of that total, and lithium sulfate 568.3 million dollars, 22% of it. The price behind that jump is steep. The average price for battery grade lithium carbonate sold into Asia reached 19,358 dollars per ton across the first 5 months of 2026, up from an average of 9,566 dollars per ton for all of 2025.

The region growing beyond the 3

Latin America and the Caribbean overall already produces 25% of the world lithium supply, and the International Energy Agency projects regional output will grow by about 50% before the end of the decade. The mining ministry of Argentina now tracks 22 separate lithium projects nationwide, with a combined 22.99 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent held in reserves at those projects, a unit that cannot be compared directly to the Geological Survey figures above.