Lithium and its compounds are indispensable materials in modern industry and have important applications in the fields of batteries, ceramics and lubricants. China is rich in lithium resources, most of which occur in salt lake brine. However, due to the limitation of resource endowment and geographical location and climate, its production capacity cannot meet the needs of the rapid development of new energy industry in China, and lithium extraction from ores has become an important source of lithium products. Yichun, Jiangxi province has the largest associated lepidolite resources in China, and the development and utilization of lepidolite resources is of great significance to ensure the sustainable development of lithium resources in China. In this review, the principle, advantages and disadvantages of the existing lithium extraction processes from lepidolite are summarized. Based on the understanding of the existing methods, typical lithium extraction processes from lepidolite such as acid method, alkali method and salt method are summarized and evaluated. Among them, the acid method is mature, but there are some problems such as difficulty in impurity removal from leaching solution, low efficiency in lithium extraction and equipment corrosion. Although the alkali process has high efficiency of extracting lithium, its reaction mechanism is not clear, and the waste residue is difficult to use. Although the salt process has high selectivity to lithium and simple process, it also has the problems of high energy consumption and large amount of slag. The development direction of lepidolite extraction technology should focus on the collaborative treatment of multiple technologies to achieve efficient, economical and environmentally friendly extraction of valuable elements. Therefore, some measures to improve the process are put forward, aiming at providing reference for the future research, development, optimization and industrial application of the process.