I believe that poster is using the "86%" figure from an interpretation of this passage from Ganfeng Chairman, Li Liangbin, during a summit this month (* note that poor translation was called out by many):
2019, the global lithium salt production was about 380,000 tons (lithium carbonate equivalent), and the consumption was about 305,000 tons, of which the lithium battery consumption is the largest, accounting for 65%. Affected by the epidemic in 2020, lithium salt prices have continued to fall, and there are no obvious signs of a rebound.
From the perspective of regional distribution, there are four major lithium salt giants in Latin America: SQM, Livent (FMC), Albemarle and Orocobre. These four companies produced about 163,300 tons of lithium salt in 2019, accounting for 44.6% of global production.
Domestically, China’s total lithium salt production in 2019 is about 256,500 tons, and the top 5 companies in production are Ganfeng Lithium, Tianqi Lithium, Zhiyuan Lithium, Ruifu Lithium, and Southern Lithium. Different from the extraction of lithium from salt lake brines abroad, domestic lithium compounds mainly come from the extraction of lithium from hard-rock, accounting for about 86%.
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