Benchmark: New Lithium Mine Needed Every Two Months to Meet 2050 Demand

The lithium industry will need to bring the equivalent of a new mine into production roughly every two months for the next 24 years to keep up with demand, according to new data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Benchmark forecasts global lithium demand will reach about 7 million metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2050, up from 2.11 million metric tons in 2026.

At an average mine size of 36,000 metric tons LCE, that 4.8 million metric ton increase equals the output of 134 new mines. Demand growth between 2040 and 2050 alone accounts for 44 of them.

“Meeting 2050 demand requires the equivalent of 134 new lithium mines, more than US$100 billion of investment before any contribution from recycling, rising to more than 180 mines in our upside scenario,” said Cameron Perks, product director for lithium at Benchmark.

Perks identified the harder problem as keeping money committed once prices turn.

“The biggest challenge is sustaining that investment through price cycles, while competing for capital with AI, defence and the wider energy transition,” he said.

Lithium prices have already swung sharply in 2026. After a strong first-half rally, battery-grade lithium carbonate ended the third quarter at US$19,025 per metric ton, down 20.8 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to Benchmark data. Spodumene concentrate fell 23.5 percent over the same period to US$1,780 per metric ton.

Benchmark expects lithium demand to more than triple between 2026 and 2050, with batteries behind most of that growth. Batteries account for 92 percent of lithium demand in 2026, up from around 70 percent in 2020.

Electric vehicles (EVs) make up 55 percent of lithium demand today. Benchmark forecasts that share will rise to 76 percent by 2050 as growth in stationary storage cools.

Perks said storage-related lithium demand has grown by more than 60 percent a year over the past two years, but he expects that rate to slow to around 5 percent a year through the end of the decade.

In addition, data centers are also introducing a newer stream of storage demand. In a webinar earlier this year, Benchmark forecast that lithium demand tied to energy storage at artificial intelligence (AI) data centers will rise from roughly 15,000 metric tons in 2025 to nearly 70,000 metric tons by 2035.

Regardless, the firm’s analysts said data centers will remain a small share of battery metals demand compared with EVs.