Since 1984 Cyprus Amax Minerals Company (as Cyprus Foote Mineral company) has produced lithium from brines of the Salar de Atacama, a salt pan in a structural depression lying between the Coastal Range and the Andes of Northern Chile.

Now two new brine-sourced lithium operations are coming on-stream in South America, and the owners of the last North American spodumene mine have announced plans for closure. MINSAL (Sociedad Minera Salar de Atacama, S.A.) has inaugurated facilities at the Salar de Atacama, and near the city of Antofagasta, on the Pacific coast, and FMC Corporation is constructing a lithium carbonate facility farther inland, at the Salar del Hombre Muerto, in Argentina.