mineral.watch cross-references verified open data and business intelligence on the minerals powering batteries, magnets, chips and defence — who mines them, who refines them, and who depends on whom.
Each mineral gets its own data dashboard: production, reserves, trade flows, prices and supply-chain concentration. Graphite, rare earths, copper, uranium, lithium, manganese, cobalt, antimony and nickel are all live.
The single largest material in a lithium-ion battery. Mining, spherical processing and anode production, mapped and charted.
Live LiThe irreplaceable ion of the battery age: hard-rock and brine supply, China's conversion chokepoint and the boom-bust-boom price cycle — mapped and charted.
Live CoThe battery age's most concentrated bet: the DRC's mines and export quotas, China's refining grip and the race to design it out — mapped and charted.
Live NiThe stainless-age metal Indonesia cornered: two-thirds of mine supply, the class-1/class-2 divide, a broken benchmark and the quota machine — mapped and charted.
Live REESeventeen elements, one dominant refiner. Magnets, export controls and the race to diversify — mapped and charted.
Live CuThe metal of electrification: grids, EVs, AI data centres, the smelting chokepoint and a looming supply gap — mapped and charted.
Live MnThe steel hardener turned battery metal: African and Australian mines, China's ~95% refining grip and the deep-sea nodule race — mapped and charted.
Live UThe nuclear revival's fuel: mined on five continents, enriched by four companies — nearly half of it in Russia — mapped and charted.
Live SbThe small metal with outsized leverage: export bans, a fivefold price spike and a defence supply chain scrambling for sources — mapped and charted.
For most strategic minerals, the supply-chain risk isn't at the mine — it's at the refinery. Pick a mineral and compare mine production against refined and smelter output, country by country, for cobalt, copper, nickel, lithium, graphite, rare earths, manganese and antimony, 1970–2024.
Strategic minerals are tiny markets compared with oil or iron ore, but everything downstream depends on them. Concentration in mining and, above all, refining makes them a lever of industrial and geopolitical power.
| Mineral | Producer | Share of world mine production, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Manganese | South Africa | 36.9% |
| Gabon | 13.3% | |
| Australia | 12.4% | |
| Ghana | 9.4% | |
| All others | 28.0% | |
| Graphite | China | 73.9% |
| Madagascar | 7.5% | |
| India | 5.0% | |
| All others | 13.7% | |
| Cobalt | DR Congo | 74.6% |
| Indonesia | 11.8% | |
| All others | 13.7% | |
| Nickel | Indonesia | 61.0% |
| Philippines | 9.3% | |
| Russia | 7.0% | |
| All others | 22.7% | |
| Copper | Chile | 24.0% |
| DR Congo | 13.8% | |
| Peru | 11.9% | |
| China | 8.0% | |
| All others | 42.2% | |
| Antimony | China | 42.8% |
| Tajikistan | 26.1% | |
| Russia | 14.3% | |
| Bolivia | 4.6% | |
| All others | 12.3% | |
| Rare earths | China | 74.9% |
| Myanmar | 12.3% | |
| USA | 7.5% | |
| All others | 5.4% | |
| Uranium | Kazakhstan | 37.3% |
| Canada | 25.5% | |
| Namibia | 11.7% | |
| Australia | 8.8% | |
| All others | 16.7% | |
| Lithium | Australia | 62.2% |
| Brazil | 14.9% | |
| Zimbabwe | 13.5% | |
| Chile | 5.0% | |
| All others | 4.3% |
The IEA projects demand for key battery minerals to roughly double or more by 2040 in its base scenarios, driven by EVs, storage and grids.
For several critical minerals, a single country refines the large majority of world supply — a tighter chokepoint than mining itself.
The US, EU, Japan and others each maintain official critical-mineral lists; export controls and tariffs increasingly follow them.
Every dashboard cross-references primary open datasets. Figures are cited to their source and dated; estimates are flagged as such.
We produce bespoke, source-cited research on strategic minerals — supply-chain mapping, trade-flow analysis, country and commodity deep-dives — built on the same open, verifiable data behind this site.
Reach out at hello@mineral.watchmineral.watch is an independent, open-data knowledge hub on strategic minerals and rare earths. It cross-references verified data from USGS, BGS, UN Comtrade and the IEA to show who mines, refines and trades the materials behind batteries, magnets, chips and defence systems.
Graphite, rare earths, copper, uranium, lithium, manganese, cobalt, antimony and nickel are live today, with more minerals in the pipeline.
Figures are cross-referenced from the USGS National Minerals Information Center, British Geological Survey World Mineral Statistics, UN Comtrade and IEA Critical Minerals data, cited and dated on each page.
No. mineral.watch is an independent project and holds no commercial position in the minerals it covers.
Yes — the public dashboards are a sample of what we do. We take commissions for bespoke, source-cited work: supply-chain mapping from mine to refinery to end use, trade-flow and import-dependency analysis, country and commodity deep-dives, custom datasets and interactive dashboards like the ones on this site, and ongoing monitoring briefs for teams in policy, finance, industry and media. We also produce full written reports — charts, maps and citations included — ready for internal circulation or publication. Every deliverable is built on the same verified USGS, BGS, UN Comtrade and IEA data. Email hello@mineral.watch with a short note on the problem you're trying to solve and we'll come back with a scoped proposal.
mineral.watch is an independent data hub, and it grows with the people who use it. Introduce yourself and we'll let you know when new dashboards, datasets and research go live — no noise, just what's new.
Telling us your sector and organisation helps too: it shows us who relies on this data — analysts, policymakers, journalists, researchers — and shapes what we build next, from new minerals to custom research.
Prefer to talk directly? Corrections, data tips and collaboration ideas are always welcome.
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