Who Mines and Who Processes the World’s Critical Minerals? USGS Maps for 2023

Production of many minerals — especially critical minerals — is concentrated in a few countries with both the deposits and the infrastructure to mine and process them. Many countries produce gold and silver, but only a few produce magnesium, niobium, platinum-group metals or rare earths. That concentration makes a global supply chain — the sequence from mining to processing to manufacturing — necessary, and complex. A U.S. Geological Survey fact sheet mapped the countries producing 5% or more of the world’s output of selected minerals in 2023, at both the mining and processing stages.

What makes a mineral “critical”

Under the Energy Act of 2020, a mineral is critical if it is essential to U.S. economic or national security, serves an essential function in manufacturing, and has a supply chain vulnerable to disruption — from foreign political risk, sudden demand growth, war, unrest, or anti-competitive or protectionist behavior. Examples include cobalt and lithium for rechargeable batteries, gallium for integrated circuits, graphite for lubricants, batteries and fuel cells, indium for LCD screens, tungsten for wear-resistant metals, and the rare earths dysprosium, neodymium and praseodymium for permanent magnets. The USGS maintains the national list; the 2022 list has 50 minerals, including 7 rare earths and 5 platinum-group metals.

Who leads

Countries’ shares of global mining production of selected minerals, 2023. Image from the USGS fact sheet.

Where mining happens depends mostly on geology. Large countries such as Australia, Canada, China and Russia have more varied geology and more high-quality deposits, while smaller countries such as Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa can hold large shares of particular minerals because of local deposits.

Processing — refining, smelting and making oxides, metals and alloys — takes complex engineering and is tied to a country’s manufacturing base, which supplies workers, infrastructure, byproduct recovery and local demand. China, Japan and South Korea run the world’s biggest refineries and smelters and are major makers of cars, electronics and batteries.

How the supply chain works

• Ore flows to processors. Leading mining countries such as Australia, Brazil, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru, South Africa and the United States processed relatively little, shipping much of their output abroad, mainly to China, Japan and South Korea. Trade data agree: in 2023 the top exporters of metal ores and concentrates by value were Australia (33%), Brazil (11%), Chile and Peru (9% each) and South Africa (5%); the top importers were China (64%), Japan (7%) and South Korea (5%).
• China’s share grows at processing. From mining to processing, China’s share of world production rose for aluminum (21% to 59%), cobalt (1% to 80%), copper (8% to 44%), tin (23% to 50%), titanium (34% to 69%) and zinc (34% to 48%) — a sign it imports large amounts of raw material for its refineries.
• Russia keeps its own. Russia mined and processed about the same range of minerals, processing its ore at home, and accounted for only 1% of world exports and 0.2% of imports of metal ores and concentrates.

Reducing the risk

Relying heavily on one source raises the risk of disruption. In the short term, the maps can help find additional capacity — high-quality resources in major mining countries and expertise in major processing countries — to diversify supply. In the long term, investing in new production capacity at home or abroad can make supply chains more resilient, though building facilities and linking them to industry takes considerable time and money.

Sources

Based on "Global maps of critical mineral production in 2023," U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2025–3038; a work of the United States government in the public domain.