The main purpose of this research is to establish a theory of lithium industry policy in Latin America, particularly in so-called ‘Lithium Triangle“. Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina consist of ’Lithium Triangle’, which covers more than 80% of lithium reserve in the world’s salt flats or salars. However, each country in ’Lithium Triangle’ has different lithium industry policy. For example, Bolivia sustains state-centered policy. Chile has implemented ‘regulation-centered state-market mixed policy’, while Argentina has shown ‘private-centered state-market mixed policy.’ To solve the puzzle, the research suggests ‘economic value’ and ‘political value’ as independent variables to determine lithium industry policy in Latin America. The comparative analysis of three cases demonstrates that the combination of economic value and political value determines the type of lithium industry policy. The degree of values varies in each case. The combination of high economic value and high political value produces state-centered lithium industry policy, while low economic value and low political value yields market-led policy. Also, low economic value and high political value results in regulation-centered state-market mixed policy while high economic value and low political value lead to private-centered state-market mixed policy. As a result, this study finds that Latin American countries implement a certain type of lithium industrial policy based on economic and political considerations.