Lithium Mining Environmental Effects: Data by Mine Type

Lithium mining environmental effects at a glance

The main environmental effects of lithium mining are groundwater drawdown and ground sinking at brine operations, vegetation and habitat clearing at hard-rock and clay mines, and waste stored as tailings or waste rock. Which one dominates depends on how the lithium is taken out of the ground. This guide sorts the evidence by extraction route and gives mine-level numbers from regulators and peer-reviewed studies, so you can check a project against them.

Demand is the reason these effects get attention. Batteries took 88% of world lithium use, and world mine production outside the US (whose output USGS withholds) was estimated at 290,000 tonnes of contained lithium in 2025, up from 222,000 tonnes in 2024; Australia, China and Chile led (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, 2026). For the wider costs and benefits, including jobs, carbon and prices, see our companion guide on the pros and cons of lithium mining. This page stays on the environmental side only.

Lithium is a metal, so it is grade-limited: the ore holds a small share of lithium and the rest becomes waste or spent brine. That is why footprints are measured in hectares, acres and cubic metres per tonne, and why we use those units below. A tonne here means a metric tonne; one hectare is about 2.47 acres.

Water: pumping, evaporation and sinking ground

Brine projects pump salty groundwater to the surface and let the sun concentrate it in ponds. Reuters reports that in this evaporation process about 90% of the water is lost to the atmosphere, and that native communities around the Atacama salt flat worry about freshwater and brine being drawn down for people and wildlife (Kitco/Reuters, August 2024).

Ground subsidence at the Salar de Atacama

A University of Chile study used radar satellite data from 2020 to 2023 and found the Atacama salt flat sinking by 1 to 2 centimetres a year. The sinking zone is about 8 km north to south and 5 km east to west, in the southwest part of the salt flat where most pumping happens. The lead author said the brine is pumped faster than the aquifers recharge. He also said subsidence caused by irreversible changes in permeability can be a very serious problem (same Reuters report). The work sits in a 2024 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing paper by Delgado and colleagues that tests SAOCOM-1 radar data on volcanoes, earthquakes, glaciers and subsidence, Atacama being one of five examples. The 1 to 2 cm and 8 by 5 km figures come from the lead author’s comments to Reuters, not from the paper’s abstract.

The same report (August 2024) says Chile’s environmental authorities had charged the two producers, SQM and Albemarle, with possible irregularities in brine extraction. Charges are not findings, so treat that as a regulatory fact, not a verdict.

Freshwater is a separate question from brine

Brine is not the same as the freshwater that local people use. A 2025 Heliyon study of two Argentine salt-flat projects separated the two and found that the plant using direct lithium extraction used more freshwater per tonne than the pond plant. The authors also cite earlier work (Vera et al., 2023) saying that DLE technologies may need larger freshwater volumes than evaporation, which matters in arid regions (Díaz Paz et al., Heliyon, 2025). Our pros-and-cons guide shows the per-tonne figures; here the point is the method: ask for freshwater and brine as two separate numbers.

Hard rock and clay use less groundwater but still need a supply

Open-pit mines need water for crushing, dust control and processing. At Thacker Pass in Nevada, a clay project, the federal environmental impact statement puts demand at 2,600 acre-feet a year for the first four years and 5,200 acre-feet a year after that. That is about 9% of the estimated perennial yield of the Quinn River Valley groundwater basin, which is fully allocated, and the right would come from transferring existing farm water rights to mining use (US Department of Energy, adopted Final EIS, 2023). Pit dewatering was projected to reach only about 55 gallons per minute at its peak, in the far future of the mine plan. The calculators below let you run the same arithmetic on any project.

Land: pits, dumps, ponds and tailings stacks

Every route changes land, but the shape differs. A scenario study by The Nature Conservancy mapped operating hard-rock mines and evaporation facilities. It describes their current footprints as similar, at about 300 km2, and projects that together they add about 600 km2 by 2040 under business as usual (Kalies et al., Journal of Cleaner Production, 2026). Those are modelled totals, not measurements of one mine.

Chart

Greenbushes referral: clearing by component

Hectares, 541 ha in total

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Thacker Pass: planned disturbance by component

Acres, selected components of the 5,695-acre total

Thacker Pass: how 5,695 acres break down

The Thacker Pass plan shows how a clay mine uses land. The project area is 17,933 acres, and the planned disturbance footprint is about 5,695 acres (roughly 2,300 hectares), including 300 acres of exploration. Of the named facilities, the clay tailings filter stack (1,166 acres) and the pit (1,100 acres) are the largest. Haul roads, stormwater ponds, fencing and other inter-facility disturbance add another 1,641 acres, the biggest single line in the table. The lined stack holds the spent clay and salts left after acid leaching. The statement also records about 28 acres of wetlands and 128,411 linear feet of stream channel in the survey area; the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed these do not meet the test for waters of the United States (same Department of Energy document). Partial pit backfill is assessed as an alternative, with no permanent pit lake expected under that option.

Greenbushes: clearing native forest for hard rock

Greenbushes, south of Perth, is a spodumene mine that has operated for more than 30 years. In a 2025 referral to Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority, the operator proposed to raise the development envelope from 2,207 to 2,826 hectares. The proposal needs additional clearing of 191 hectares, which brings the total to 541 hectares: 350 hectares of native vegetation approved earlier, 162 hectares more in State Forest 20, and 29 hectares of existing mine disturbance that has been rehabilitated (EPA Western Australia referral page, April 2025). These are proposed figures, not an approval. In May 2025 the EPA decided to assess the proposal as a Public Environmental Review with an 8-week public review, and its proposal page was last updated in December 2025.

For the earlier expansion, the EPA said in May 2019 that clearing 350 hectares of native vegetation was unavoidable for the proposal to proceed, and it recommended offsets for lost habitat of Carnaby’s and Baudin’s black cockatoos, the numbat and the western ringtail possum (EPA Western Australia media statement, May 2019).

If you want the geology behind these three routes before judging footprints, read our guide to pegmatite, brine and clay lithium deposits.

Wildlife and wetlands

Salt-flat lagoons are small, shallow and fed by scarce water, so small changes matter. A study in the Royal Society’s Proceedings B counted flamingos across Chilean salt flats and used satellite images of mining ponds as a proxy for water taken by mining. Reuters reports that at the Atacama the James’s and Andean flamingo counts fell by 10 to 12% over 11 years, while flamingo numbers stayed steady on salt flats without mining. The authors also say climate change is drying lakes across the region, so mining adds to a wider water squeeze (ScienceDaily, March 2022). SQM disagreed with key parts of the study and said its own monitoring shows stable flamingo populations (Reuters via Mining.com, May 2022).

The study is observational, so it shows a link and not a proven cause, and pond area is an indirect measure of water use. Both points are fair reasons to ask for ground monitoring next to satellite counts. The practical lesson for a reviewer is to ask where the baseline bird, wetland and vegetation surveys are, and how long they ran before pumping began.

Hard-rock mines bring a different habitat question: forest and woodland are cleared, and threatened species need offsets, as the Greenbushes decision shows. In both cases the effect is not only the area removed. Roads, pits and dams cut habitat into smaller pieces.

▶ The 7 environmental impacts of mining, explained in clay (2:31) · 2:31

Tailings, waste rock and chemicals

Every route leaves a waste stream. Hard-rock mines leave waste rock and tailings. Brine plants leave spent brine and salts. Clay projects leave acid-leached clay and sulfate salts. At Thacker Pass the plan includes a sulfuric acid plant, with an estimated capacity of 5,800 tons a day once both phases are built (2,900 in phase 1), regulated under a permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, and a permanent lined clay tailings filter stack (Department of Energy Final EIS).

At Greenbushes, the referral includes new water management infrastructure to stop discharge of water-borne leachates from waste rock on the eastern side (EPA Western Australia referral, above). Leachate is water that has run through waste and picked up dissolved salts and metals, so capturing it is a basic control.

Questions to ask about any waste facility: Is it lined? Where does seepage go? What is stored, and in what volume? What happens to it at closure? A tailings plan that cannot answer those four is not ready for approval.

Can direct lithium extraction reduce the effects?

DLE pulls lithium out of brine with sorbents or membranes and can return the brine underground. The Nature Conservancy study modelled three supply scenarios with the same lithium output. Moving to moderate or aggressive DLE adoption could avoid 141 to 381 km2 of land conversion (a 20% to 50% cut), and lower freshwater use by about 11% to 32% and CO2 emissions by about 9% to 44%. The authors add that real benefits depend on the DLE technology chosen, how well brine is reinjected, the energy source and how fast DLE scales (Kalies et al., 2026).

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Modelled cut versus business as usual, by 2040

Percent reduction in each footprint

Developers in California’s Salton Sea area propose a closed-loop system that they say is cleaner and safer than hard-rock mines or evaporation ponds, though the project pipeline there is under pressure (CalMatters, September 2026). The right reading is cautious: the model shows a possible gain, and the Heliyon work shows a freshwater trade-off. Each project needs its own numbers.

How satellites measure these effects

Several effects above were found from space. The Atacama sinking was mapped with radar satellites, and the flamingo study measured pond area in satellite images. The US Geological Survey explains that radar interferometry (InSAR) can detect land-surface change as small as a few millimetres by comparing radar signals from the same point at different times (USGS Fact Sheet 069-03). Optical images such as Sentinel-2 show vegetation loss, pond area and bare ground each season.

Farmonaut’s satellite-based mineral detection takes a licence boundary (KML, KMZ or polygon) and returns satellite maps of the ground. A baseline image of the area before any disturbance does not replace field surveys or a legal assessment, but it dates the starting condition. If you want one for your own area, use the mining query form.

▶ Remote sensing for mining explained in 2 minutes · 2:01

What to check in an environmental assessment

Use this checklist when you read a lithium project’s environmental statement, an investor presentation or a community submission.

1. Water balance. Annual demand in cubic metres or acre-feet, the source, and the share of the basin’s sustainable yield. Brine and freshwater should be listed separately.
2. Drawdown and subsidence. Modelled water-table fall, how far it reaches, and whether the project commits to satellite or ground subsidence monitoring.
3. Disturbance by component. Pit, dumps, tailings, plant, roads and ponds in hectares or acres, with a total that adds up.
4. Habitat and wetlands. Baseline surveys, listed species, offsets and how long surveys ran.
5. Waste and chemicals. Liner design, seepage capture, acid or reagent storage, and who holds the permit.
6. Closure. Backfill options, final landform, and how the closure cost is secured.
7. Monitoring and data. Whether results are public and independently reviewed.

The two calculators on this page cover items 1 and 2. They use simple arithmetic and the inputs you enter, so they are only as good as your project’s own numbers.

If this topic matters to you, read Causes and Effects of Mining: Key Impacts With Data next.

Related reading on this site: Water Usage in Lithium Extraction per Ton: Real Data.

Frequently asked questions

What are the main environmental effects of lithium mining?

The main effects are groundwater drawdown and ground subsidence at brine sites, habitat and native vegetation clearing at hard-rock and clay mines, and waste storage in tailings, waste rock or spent brine. At the Atacama, a University of Chile study found 1 to 2 cm of sinking per year (Kitco/Reuters, 2024); at Greenbushes, a 2025 referral proposed 541 hectares of clearing.

Is lithium mining bad for the environment?

It has real local costs: water, land, habitat and waste. The size of those costs differs by extraction route and by site, which is why mine-level documents matter more than general claims. Mitigation such as reinjection, backfill, lined waste stacks and offsets can reduce some effects, but the evidence for each is project specific.

How does lithium brine extraction affect water?

Brine is pumped from salt-flat aquifers and concentrated in ponds, where about 90% of the water evaporates (Reuters, 2024). Heavy pumping can outpace recharge and cause subsidence, and freshwater use is a separate figure from brine volume.

Does lithium mining cause the ground to sink?

At the Salar de Atacama, satellite radar measured sinking of 1 to 2 cm a year over a zone of roughly 8 by 5 km, according to the lead author, who linked it to brine pumping. Not every site is measured this way, so ask whether subsidence monitoring is part of the permit.

How much land does a lithium mine use?

It varies widely. The Thacker Pass plan disturbs about 5,695 acres (roughly 2,300 hectares), while the Greenbushes referral covers a 2,826 hectare envelope with 541 hectares of clearing. Compare components, not only totals.

Does lithium mining harm wildlife?

A 2022 study linked mining water use to a 10 to 12% fall over 11 years in two flamingo species at the Atacama, alongside climate-driven drying, though the operator disputes the link and the study is observational. At Greenbushes, regulators required offsets for threatened black cockatoos and other species.

Is direct lithium extraction better for the environment?

A 2026 model found DLE could cut land conversion by 20% to 50% and freshwater use by 11% to 32% compared with business as usual. A 2025 field study found one DLE plant used more freshwater per tonne than a pond plant. Both can be true, so check the site’s own data.

What waste does lithium mining produce?

Waste rock and tailings at hard-rock mines, spent brine and salts at brine plants, and acid-leached clay and sulfate salts at clay projects. Thacker Pass plans a lined clay tailings filter stack for this purpose.

Can satellites monitor lithium mine impacts?

Yes, for several of them. Radar InSAR measures land movement down to millimetres, and optical images track vegetation, ponds and bare ground (USGS). Satellites show surface change; they do not show chemistry or species counts, which need field sampling.

Where can I read the official environmental documents for a project?

Look for the government environmental impact statement or referral. In the US these are on the federal agency’s project page (for example BLM and the Department of Energy for Thacker Pass); in Western Australia they are on the EPA website. Company filings and mine plans give the engineering detail.