mineral.watch is an independent data and intelligence portal. It cross-references verified official statistics on the mineral supply chains behind batteries, magnets, chips, grids and defence — who produces, who refines, who ships, and who depends on whom.
Drag the handle to compare satellite images of the same ground years apart.
12 Nov 201924 Aug 2026
The same 14 km of Halmahera's coast, seven years apart. The tan scars are nickel laterite mines cut into rainforest; the grey grid on the shore is the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), where the ore is smelted into nickel pig iron, matte and battery feed.
Sentinel-2 true colour, 12 Nov 2019 and 24 Aug 2026. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2019, 2026.
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, nickel, tin, tungsten, the chip metals gallium and germanium, the platinum-group metals, and tantalum and niobium 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.
Live SnThe solder in every circuit board: Myanmar's Wa State restart, Congo's Bisie under M23 pressure, Indonesia's crackdown and the 2026 price records — mapped and charted.
Live WArmour, penetrators and every carbide cutting tool: China's export controls and 79% grip on mine supply, Japan's cut-off, the ninefold price shock and the Western rebuild — mapped and charted.
Live Ga·GeThe chip metals China banned outright: byproducts of alumina and zinc that no price signal can conjure — China's 99% grip on gallium, the US ban and its 27 November 2026 cliff, the two-tier price, and the radar, night-vision, fibre and AI power-electronics uses — mapped and charted.
Live Pt·PdThe catalyst metals two countries mine four-fifths of: South Africa's 71% of platinum, Russia's 44% of palladium, the 2026 record and 44% slump, palladium's first surplus in 14 years, the Russian-duty fight and the exhaust, nitric-acid, glass and hydrogen uses — mapped and charted.
Live Ta·NbThe capacitor metal and the steel metal: Congo and Rwanda's 68% of tantalum, the M23-held Rubaya mines and the coltan smuggled through Rwanda, the 2026 price spike, Brazil's 93% of niobium and the chip, jet-engine, rocket and pipeline uses — mapped and charted.
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. Africa shows the gap starkly: it mined about 77% of the world's cobalt in 2024 but refined under 2%, and 24% of its critical-mineral exports leave raw and 72% semi-processed (OECD, 2026).
| 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% | |
| Tin | China | 25.1% |
| Indonesia | 16.9% | |
| Peru | 11.0% | |
| Brazil | 9.4% | |
| All others | 37.6% | |
| Tungsten | China | 77.8% |
| Vietnam | 7.1% | |
| All others | 15.1% | |
| PGMs | South Africa | 56.9% |
| Russia | 24.3% | |
| Zimbabwe | 8.6% | |
| Canada | 5.2% | |
| All others | 5.2% |
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.
The maps and production figures on every dashboard stay free. Full access opens the analysis that follows them on all fourteen dashboards, refreshed every month.
China's share of world mining vs its share of the processing step after it
Sources: USGS, IEA, Cobalt Institute and industry estimates, as cited on each dashboard. The processing stage differs by mineral.
Selected corridors into and out of China
Corridors as named on the cobalt, lithium, tin, rare-earth, manganese and gallium-germanium dashboards; arcs show direction, not tonnage. Germanium destinations: USGS, Jan–Sep 2025. Rare earths: USGS, US imports 2021–24.
APT, US$ per mtu of WO₃, cif Rotterdam, and the export controls that moved it
Sources: USGS/Argus, Fastmarkets, SMM; ranges at midpoints. The 2011 high is approximate.
US$ per kg inside China vs in Western markets, autumn 2026
Sources: SMM (China, 30 Sep 2026); Strategic Metals Invest (Western, 7 Oct 2026). Gallium 4N, germanium 5N.
| Mineral | Mining | Processing stage | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manganese | 4 | Electrolytic Mn metal | 93 |
| Cobalt | 1 | Refined cobalt | 79 |
| Lithium | 21 | Lithium chemicals | 74 |
| Antimony | 36 | Smelting & processing | 80 |
| Copper | 8 | Refinery output | 48 |
| Tin | 24 (2025) | Refined production (2024) | 52 |
| Rare earths | 69 | Refining & separation | 85 |
| Graphite | 82 | Spherical graphite | 95 |
| Tungsten | 79 | APT, oxide, powder & carbide capacity (est.) | 82 |
| Corridor | What moves |
|---|---|
| DR Congo → China | Cobalt hydroxide |
| Australia, Brazil → China | Spodumene (lithium ore) |
| Myanmar → China | Tin ore and heavy rare earths |
| South Africa, Gabon → China | Manganese ore |
| China → United States | Rare-earth compounds and metals: 71% of US imports, 2021–24 |
| China → Russia, Belgium, Germany, Japan | Germanium metal: 28%, 26%, 26% and 18% of China's exports, Jan–Sep 2025 |
| Date | Price |
|---|---|
| 2011 peak (approx.) | 450 |
| Start 2025 | 331 |
| End 2025 | 675 |
| Jan 2026 | 920 |
| Mid-Feb 2026 | 1,775 |
| Apr 2026 peak | 3,185 |
| Late Jun 2026 | 2,650 |
| 10 Sep 2026 | 3,000 |
| Metal | Inside China | Western market |
|---|---|---|
| Gallium 4N | 229 | 2,828 |
| Germanium 5N | 3,586 | 9,939 |
The complete version of everything on mineral.watch, refreshed every month.
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What full access includes →mineral.watch is an independent data and intelligence portal on strategic minerals and rare earths. It cross-references verified data from USGS, BGS, UN Comtrade, the IEA and the EIA to show who produces, refines, ships and depends on the materials behind batteries, magnets, chips, grids and defence systems. Each dashboard's maps and production figures are free; full access opens the analysis that follows.
Fourteen mineral dashboards are live — graphite, rare earths, copper, uranium, lithium, manganese, cobalt, antimony, nickel, tin, tungsten, the chip metals gallium and germanium, the platinum-group metals, and tantalum and niobium. The Mineral Explorer adds production and trade maps for 110 commodities from 1970 to 2024.
The opening sections of every dashboard are free: the world map, how the supply chain works and who produces what. So is the Mineral Explorer. Full access opens the analysis that follows them on all fourteen dashboards, from refining and trade to chokepoints, defence, investment and the companies, refreshed every month.
Full access to every map and dashboard opens soon. Join the waitlist and we'll email you when it opens; there is no payment now. For a team or an institution, write to hello@mineral.watch.
About a tenth by export value: Africa supplied 10.6% of world exports of raw and semi-processed minerals in 2023, some $266 billion, according to UNCTAD figures in the OECD's 2026 regional review (Critical minerals in Africa), and 24% of its critical-mineral exports leave raw and 72% semi-processed. For a few minerals it dominates mining: in 2024 Africa mined about 77% of the world's cobalt, 65% of its platinum-group metals, 63% of its manganese ore, 60% of its chromite and 35% of its bauxite (BGS). Refining is another story: it produced under 2% of the world's refined cobalt. With full access, the mined-vs-refined map on each mineral dashboard shows Africa's share at each stage.
Figures are cross-referenced from the USGS National Minerals Information Center, British Geological Survey World Mineral Statistics, UN Comtrade, the IEA and the EIA, plus industry bodies, price reporters and company reports where they hold the better number. Every chart is cited and dated on its page.
No. mineral.watch is an independent project and holds no commercial position in the minerals or companies it covers.
Yes — the free sections of the 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.
We produce bespoke, source-cited research on strategic minerals — supply-chain mapping, trade-flow analysis, country and commodity deep-dives, and policy briefs on producer-country rules such as Africa's export bans and processing plans — built on the same open, verifiable data behind this site.
Reach out at hello@mineral.watchmineral.watch is an independent data hub, and it grows with the people who use it. Introduce yourself and join the waitlist: we'll email you when full access opens, and let you know when new dashboards, datasets and research go live — no noise, just what's new.
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