How this database is built
Critical-Minerals.si combines official government lists, the US Geological Survey's production and reserves data, and recent market reporting into one normalized database. Version 1, data as of October 5, 2026.
Production, reserves and US reliance
Country production (2024 actual, 2025 estimated), reserves, US net import reliance, import sources and end uses come from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (data release). Shares are calculated against the USGS world total for 2025 on the basis USGS reports (mine production unless noted — e.g. refinery output for gallium, germanium and indium, smelter output for aluminum). Where USGS withholds a country's figure, it is shown as withheld and excluded from shares.
Individual rare-earth elements share group-level rare-earth oxide production totals, and platinum-group metal reserves are reported combined, because USGS does not publish element-level country figures. Some materials on national lists (e.g. electrical steel, metallurgical coal, helium) have partial or no country breakdown.
National lists
Each list was taken from the publishing government or an authoritative summary, then mapped to a single mineral vocabulary. Group entries (rare earths, PGMs) are marked “group” for each member element.
- USUnited States — Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals (2025)
- US DOEUnited States (DOE) — Critical Materials List — critical materials for energy (2023)
- EUEuropean Union — Critical & Strategic Raw Materials (2024)
- GBUnited Kingdom — 2024 Criticality Assessment (2024)
- CNChina — National Mineral Resources Plan (2016–2020) — 24 strategic minerals (2016)
- JPJapan — Critical Minerals (35 mineral species) (2023)
- KRSouth Korea — 33 Critical Minerals / 10 Strategic Critical Minerals (2023)
- INIndia — 30 Critical Minerals for India (2023)
- AUAustralia — Critical Minerals List & Strategic Materials List (2024)
- CACanada — Canada's Critical Minerals List (2024)
Supply status
An editorial assessment based on the IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 and current reporting, reviewed for each mineral:
AI relevance
Supply risk index (0–100)
+ 0.20 · China share
+ 0.15 · US net import reliance
+ 0.20 · export controls (China = 1, other = 0.6)
+ 0.20 · status weight (deficit 1 · tight 0.85 · watch 0.4 · adequate 0.1) )
It is a transparent screening heuristic for comparison, not a forecast. Missing inputs count as zero, which can understate risk for minerals with withheld data.
Key market sources
- IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 — Executive summary
- IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 — Outlook
- Reuters — Niche metals test West's resilience (Sep 2026)
- Asia Times — US, Japan race to secure chip-grade minerals (Sep 2026)
- CNN — AI boom pushes copper to record highs (Sep 2026)
- Resources Policy (2026) — Mineral demand from AI data centers
- Rare Earth Exchanges — AI data-center mineral demand study (Sep 2026)
- Rio Times — DR Congo cobalt quotas & concentrate ban (Aug 2026)
- Reuters — Helium prices soar as Qatar LNG halt exposes supply chain (Mar 2026)
- PR Newswire via TradingView — tungsten concentrate prices tripled (Sep 2026)
- Reuters — US invests in critical minerals but China maintains grip (Sep 2026)
This site is for research and education and is not investment advice.