Critical Minerals Atlas

From ore to end use

The bar under each stage is China's approximate share of global output at that step. The chokepoint is usually not the mine.

Volumes are approximate annual figures for the latest full year (2025) or stated capacity, compiled from company reports and USGS; shares are of world mine or refined output and are rounded. Where a site is planned or idle, the row says so.

Each step from the ground to the finished product: what goes in, what is done to it, what it takes, and what it is called when it comes out. Routes that split (for example sulfide vs. oxide ore) are labeled.

Announced U.S. government support along this supply chain. Amounts are rounded and as announced; several are letters of interest, conditional commitments or MOUs rather than disbursed funds.

Year	Agency / vehicle	Recipient	Amount	What it funds

What this is

A plain-language primer on the minerals that sit underneath modern industry and defense. Pick a mineral in the left rail and you get six views: a map of mines, processors, refineries and buyers with traceable offtake routes; a price history; a stage-by-stage supply chain showing who does what and where the chokepoints are; a table of the biggest mines and refineries with volumes and market share; an ore-to-metal process route showing what is done to the material at each step, what it takes and what it is called; and a table of what the U.S. government has funded along that chain.

Where it stands

This is an early release. Twenty dashboards cover antimony, gallium, germanium, graphite, cobalt, lithium, rare earths, tungsten, copper, nickel, manganese, titanium, bauxite & aluminum, niobium, magnesium, palladium, tantalum, tin, zinc, and zirconium & hafnium; the rest of the USGS list is on the roadmap. Coverage is deepest for Africa, the Americas and the U.S. industrial base, and thinnest for Russia and Central Asia. Sites are added when there is a public announcement to point to. If something is wrong, out of date, or missing, say so — corrections are welcome (see Contact).

How to read the numbers

Prices are approximate annual averages for a stated benchmark grade, drawn from published market commentary, and are meant to show shape and scale, not to trade on. Production shares and U.S. import reliance are rounded from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries. China's share at each supply-chain stage is an estimate. Investment amounts are as announced; many are letters of interest, conditional commitments or MOUs rather than disbursed funds, and a few marked "reported" have not been confirmed by the agency involved. Nothing here is investment, legal or policy advice.

Sources

U.S. Geological Survey (Mineral Commodity Summaries; 2025 List of Critical Minerals) · U.S. International Development Finance Corporation · Export-Import Bank of the United States · Department of War Industrial Base Policy (DPA Title III, IBAS, Office of Strategic Capital) · Department of Energy Loan Programs Office · Department of State Bureau of Energy Resources and the 2026 Critical Minerals Ministerial · Defense Logistics Agency · company filings and releases (Perpetua, MP Materials, Syrah, Lynas, Pensana, Lindian, Trinity Metals, Korea Zinc, Alcoa, Sinomine and others) · Fastmarkets, Mining.com, Ecofin Agency, IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook.

Credits

Maintained by Nick Raineri — see the Contact tab. Map data: Natural Earth via world-atlas. Built with D3. Single self-contained page — no tracking, no cookies.

Contact

This atlas is maintained by Nick Raineri. If you spot an error, know of a project or investment that should be on the map, or want to talk about any of it, get in touch. Corrections with a source link are the most useful thing you can send.

The U.S. critical minerals list

The USGS Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals (Nov 7, 2025): all 50 minerals from the 2022 list plus ten additions, marked below. Minerals with a full dashboard are highlighted; the rest are on the roadmap.