The production of refined lithium, a key component in most electric vehicle and utility-scale battery storage systems worldwide, is on target to maintain a record volume needed to keep up with the pace of battery storage installation both in the U.S. and worldwide.
Worldwide production of lithium topped an all-time high of 240,000 metric tons in 2024, according to various reports. Australia is the world’s top lithium miner at about 88,000 metric tons, while Chile and China ranked second and third, respectively, at 49,000 and 41,000 metric tons.
Chile’s South American competitor Brazil is rising fast in mining and exporting lithium. Brazil may invest up to $6 billion in scaling up lithium production five-fold this decade over its 2023 total of nearly 30,000 metric tons.
One of the growing producers in Brazil is Sigma Lithium Corp. which is producing a concentrate it calls “Quintuple Zero Green Lithium” and achieving the company’s all-time best levels. In the first quarter of this year, Sigma Lithium reported some 68,000 tons of its lithium extraction mined from its Groto do Cirilo operation in the state of Minas Gerais.
Sigma Lithium began production at Groto do Cirilo in 2023 and hopes to generate 270,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate per year. The concentrate is extracted from ore and brine and eventually is delivered into the whole lithium supply chain.
"In the first quarter of 2025, we demonstrated our ability to maintain our operational cadence achieving both the targeted production levels of 68,000t and meeting our sales targets,” Ana Cabral, CEO of Sigma Lithium, said in a statement. “Once again, we have proven our ability to deliver on our projection, remaining focused on the operational elements we can control.”
For the first quarter 2025 production, the company has sold much of its capacity to minerals trading firm International Resource Holdings, which is owned by the Royal Group of Abu Dhabi.
Sigma Lithium’s first quarter production did not mention exports to the U.S., which is limited in its own lithium production capacity but is working to expand new mines. President Trump has levied a tariff on Brazilian imports into the U.S., but at a relatively low 10 percent compared with other nations.
The region where Sigma’s Groto do Cirilo lithium mine resides reportedly holds close to 109 million metric tons of potentially recoverable lithium extract.
In the U.S., GeoFrame Energy announced this week it would break ground on a lithium extraction facility in east Texas beginning this summer. It would extract lithium carbonate from a limestone formation which holds volumes of brine (salty water mix). A large portion of the world’s commercial-grade lithium production is collected via solar evaporation of element-rich brine, among other methods.
A 2020 report by the U.S. Geological Survey indicated that some 20 U.S. formations contain known capacity to produce at least 15,000 metric tons from past mining. North America’s biggest known lithium deposit is the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada.
Lithium currently makes up to close to 90% of the key elements in utility-scale and EV batteries. Last year, a record of 12.3 GW of battery storage capacity was installed in the U.S., according to the American Clean Power and research partner Wood MacKenzie.
Ablemarle operates lithium mining in Nevada (pictured).
