What is it?
A silvery metal added to steel so it keeps its strength at high temperature and under pressure.
Why does it matter?
Pipeline steel, pressure vessels and reactor internals need molybdenum. Most of it comes up as a by-product of copper porphyry mining.
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 molybdenum. A deposit is only an orebody if one of them is concentrated enough to pay for digging it up.
Who produces it
See it on a map →Mine production
Mine productionmetric tons 2025 (estimated) World total 260,000 metric tons
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · Mine production of contained molybdenum; a large share is by-product. · source ↗
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Country | Production | Share of world |
|---|---|---|
| China | 97,000 | 37.3% |
| Chile | 42,000 | 16.2% |
| United States | 40,000 | 15.4% |
| Peru | 39,000 | 15.0% |
| Mexico | 17,000 | 6.5% |
| Armenia | 5,300 | 2.0% |
| Kazakhstan | 4,300 | 1.7% |
| Mongolia | 4,200 | 1.6% |
| Iran | 3,300 | 1.3% |
| Canada | 2,200 | 0.8% |
| Uzbekistan | 2,000 | 0.8% |
| Russia | 1,300 | 0.5% |
| Australia | 1,000 | 0.4% |
| Korea, North | 800.0 | 0.3% |
| Korea, Republic of | 500.0 | 0.2% |
| Other countries | Zero | — |
| World total | 260,000 | 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.
Who holds the reserves
Reserves (thousand metric tons)
Reserves (thousand metric tons)thousand metric tons 2025
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · source ↗
| Country | Reserves | Share of world |
|---|---|---|
| China | 7,800 | 45.9% |
| United States | 3,500 | 20.6% |
| Chile | 2,600 | 15.3% |
| Russia | 1,100 | 6.5% |
| Peru | 1,000 | 5.9% |
| Australia | 760.0 | 4.5% |
| Other countries | 150.0 | 0.9% |
| Armenia | 150.0 | 0.9% |
| Mexico | 130.0 | 0.8% |
| Korea, North | 78.00 | 0.5% |
| Canada | 64.00 | 0.4% |
| Iran | 43.00 | 0.3% |
| Uzbekistan | 21.00 | 0.1% |
| Mongolia | 10.00 | 0.1% |
| Korea, Republic of | 8.00 | 0.0% |
| Kazakhstan | 7.00 | 0.0% |
| World total | 17,000 | 100% |
Price
average, dollars per kilogram
Annual averagedollars per kilogram
Basis: average, dollars per kilogram. Annual averages as published in USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · source ↗. These are reference annual averages, not a live market quote.
Mines that produce it
All mines →
Cerro Verde
One of the largest concentrator complexes in the world by throughput.
Chuquicamata
Historically the largest open-pit copper mine in the world by excavated volume.
Collahuasi
Among the largest copper mines by output.
El Teniente
The largest underground copper mine in the world by excavated extent.
Escondida
Consistently the largest copper mine in the world by output.
Morenci
The largest copper operation in North America.
Export controls
| Country | Control | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| China | Export licensing requirement for materials and technologies | Antimony (2024), bismuth (2025), synthesized diamond (2025), gallium (2023), germanium (2023), graphite (2023), indium (2025), magnesium materials (2024), molybdenum (2025), rare earths (2025), silver (2026), tellurium (2025), tungsten (2025), and items related to lithium batteries and artificial graphite anode materials (2025). ↗ |
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, table 4 — controls in effect as of January 2026, excluding controls since lifted.