Asia
South Korea
What comes out of the ground here, what is still in it, and who operates the assets.
14 materials produced
0 mines in the atlas
1 plants in the atlas
What it produces
Maps →USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · 2025 (estimated) · each row keeps the unit the source uses for that commodity · source ↗
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Material | Series | Production | Unit | Share of world |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zeolites (Natural) | Mine production | 160,000 | metric tons | 12.3% |
| Cement | Cement production | 37,000 | thousand metric tons | 1.0% |
| Lime | Production | 5,000 | thousand metric tons | 1.2% |
| Cadmium | Refinery production | 4,300 | metric tons | 18.7% |
| Sulfur | Production, all forms | 3,100 | thousand metric tons | 3.7% |
| Rhenium | Mine production | 3,000 | kilograms | 3.7% |
| Bismuth | Refinery production | 1,000 | metric tons | 6.2% |
| Feldspar & Nepheline Syenite | Mine production | 1,000 | thousand metric tons | 3.2% |
| Molybdenum | Mine production | 500.0 | metric tons | 0.2% |
| Graphite | Mine production | 500.0 | metric tons | 0.0% |
| Talc & Pyrophyllite | Mine production | 300.0 | thousand metric tons | 4.3% |
| Indium | Refinery production | 180.0 | metric tons | 16.4% |
| Diatomite | Mine production | 120.0 | thousand metric tons | 4.8% |
| Copper | Mine production | Zero | thousand metric tons | — |
What it holds in reserve
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · reserves as most recently published
| Material | Series | Reserves | Unit | Share of world |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphite | Reserves | 1,800,000 | metric tons | 0.6% |
| Feldspar & Nepheline Syenite | Reserves | 200,000 | thousand metric tons | — |
| Talc & Pyrophyllite | Reserves | 81,000 | thousand metric tons | — |
| Diatomite | Reserves | 2,200 | thousand metric tons | — |
| Molybdenum | Reserves (thousand metric tons) | 8.00 | thousand metric tons | 0.0% |
| Copper | Reserves | Zero | thousand metric tons | — |
| Rhenium | Reserves | Not applicable | kilograms | — |
Processing and manufacturing sites
Samsung Pyeongtaek Campus · Semiconductor fabJourneys that pass through South Korea
All journeys →Material that is dug up here, refined here, or simply crosses the border on its way somewhere else.
Australian spodumene to a battery, the fast way Eight weeks instead of eighteen months, at the cost of a great deal more energy. Congolese cobalt to a battery cathode A metal almost nobody mines on purpose, carried out of a landlocked country by truck. Saudi Arab Light to petrol, almost anywhere The same commodity, a fraction of the effort — because of what the molecule is.