Critical Minerals Lithium

Operating margin for the most recent fiscal year. This is what a commodity downcycle looks like in the accounts: the low-cost Chilean brine producer stays comfortably profitable while higher-cost hard rock producers and developers post losses.

Six years of operating margin. The arc from the 2022 peak, when lithium was the most profitable commodity in the world, to today is the sharpest boom-and-bust anywhere in this sector, and a caution against assuming strategic demand guarantees returns.

Revenue for the most recent fiscal year. Albemarle and SQM are the only two at meaningful scale; the rest are developers or early producers. Lithium Americas is absent because it is pre-revenue.