Drag to turn the globe

Mines/Australia

Greenbushes mine

Greenbushes mine, Australia. Producing, open pit, mining lithium, tantalum since 1888.

Why Greenbushes is famous

The world's best-known hard-rock lithium mine, in Western Australia. Tin was mined from 1888, tantalum from 1942 and lithium concentrate from 1983. It is now a truck-and-shovel open pit. A June 2025 technical report gives 37.1 Mt of SC6.0 concentrate produced to 30 June 2025.1,2,3

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1888Tin mining starts at Greenbushes6
  2. 1983Greenbushes lithium production begins6

What kind of deposit

Lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite

Greenbushes today

Where lithium is mined todayWhere tantalum is mined todayMining in Australia

Where next

People

Discovered byDavid StintonA tin field found in 1888 now produces lithium minerals.7Investigated byEdward HardmanHe first reported tin at Greenbushes.7

Mines

Same kind of depositTancoGreenbushes started with tin in 1888. Tanco in Manitoba mines tantalum, caesium and lithium.1ExamplesPilgangooraPilgangoora made 224.8 kt of spodumene in one quarter of 2025. Greenbushes began in 1983.8Same kind of depositBikitaTwo lithium pegmatite mines: Greenbushes in Western Australia, Bikita in Zimbabwe.1

Events

HereTin mining starts at GreenbushesTin from 1888, tantalum from 1942, lithium concentrate from 1983.1Led toGreenbushes lithium production beginsRead what happened near Greenbushes: Greenbushes lithium production begins.1

Places

Located inGreenbushesGreenbushes sits at Greenbushes.1

Deposit types

An example ofLithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatiteA working example of the lithium-caesium-tantalum (lct) pegmatite type.9

Sources

  1. Greenbushes Lithium Operation technical report summary 2025 Albemarle Corporation (SEC exhibit 96.1, SLR technical report summary)
  2. Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 Albemarle Corporation (SEC)
  3. data/minerals/operations.csv Prospector Trails (internal)
  4. WA Battery and Critical Minerals Profile, March 2024 Western Australian Treasury Corporation
  5. About Talison Lithium
  6. Tin (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  7. Tin (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  8. September 2025 Quarterly Activities Report Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX)
  9. Mineral Deposit Models for Resource Assessment, Chapter O: Mineral-Deposit Model for Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum Pegmatites (SIR 2010-5070-O) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

The world runs on rockThe BatteryInside a lithium-ion cellHistory of miningThe new rush: lithium, cobalt and rare earths1888-2025The Super Pit gold mine at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, at sunsetMining historyGold rushes, then and nowGold and lithium · WorldwideGold drill-hole columns rising over the Yilgarn goldfields on a satellite map of Western AustraliaData storyUnder Western AustraliaDrill holes · Western Australia

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).