What is it?
A very light, very stiff metal that is transparent to X-rays and dangerous to breathe as dust.
Why does it matter?
Beryllium is stiffer than steel at a quarter the weight, which is why it is in satellite optics, missile guidance and the James Webb telescope's mirrors.
Deeper written sections for this material have not been published yet. Everything below is drawn straight from the source datasets and is complete.
Where it comes from in the rock
All ore minerals →These are the minerals that actually carry beryllium. A deposit is only an orebody if one of them is concentrated enough to pay for digging it up.
Bertrandite
A low-grade beryllium silicate in volcanic tuff, and the source of most Western beryllium production.
Beryl
The classic beryllium mineral. Most commercial beryllium now comes from bertrandite, a lower-grade but far more…
Who produces it
See it on a map →Mine production
Mine productionmetric tons 2025 (estimated) World total 430.0 metric tons
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · Mine production of contained beryllium, mostly from bertrandite ore. · source ↗
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Country | Production | Share of world |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 230.0 | 53.5% |
| Brazil | 80.00 | 18.6% |
| China | 77.00 | 17.9% |
| Nigeria | 40.00 | 9.3% |
| Mozambique | 3.00 | 0.7% |
| Madagascar | 1.00 | 0.2% |
| Rwanda | 1.00 | 0.2% |
| World total | 430.0 | 100% |
“Withheld” means the USGS suppressed the figure to avoid disclosing an individual company's data — it does not mean zero. Country rows do not always sum to the world total because the source rounds each figure independently and does not always break out an “other countries” line.
Price
annual average unit value, beryllium-copper master alloy, dollars per kilogram of contained beryllium
Annual averagedollars per kilogram
Basis: annual average unit value, beryllium-copper master alloy, dollars per kilogram of contained beryllium. Annual averages as published in USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · source ↗. These are reference annual averages, not a live market quote.
What it is used for
All end markets →| End market | What it does there | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Aerospace & Defence | Optics and inertial guidance | Important |