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Industrial Minerals

The catalogue

Industrial Minerals

Non-metallic rock and salts used by the tonne: cement, glass, chemicals, abrasives.

Königswartha Caminau Kaolin quarry Aerial · Gunther Tschuch · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

All · 146 Rare Earth Elements · 18 Aerospace & Defence Materials · 10 Agricultural Minerals · 3 Battery Materials · 5 Copper & Electrical Materials · 4 Energy Raw Materials · 7 Industrial Minerals · 35 Nuclear Materials · 5 Precious Metals · 10 Semiconductor Materials · 11 Steel & Alloy Metals · 13 Wood & Forest Products · 25

Critical Mineral · 63 Strategic · 36 Construction · 35 Byproduct Only · 27 Energy Transition · 26 Defence · 24 Chip Chain · 17 Forest Product · 12 Recyclable at Scale · 9 Magnet Chain · 8 Hardwood · 8 Softwood · 7 Renewable · 6 Food Chain · 6 Engineered Wood · 4 Grid Chain · 2

Sort: Shelf Name World production Reserves U.S. import reliance Full screener → Periodic table →

4 materials shown. Figures are from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · as each source defines it for each commodity · source ↗

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

Material	Shelf	World production 2025	World reserves	Leading producer	U.S. imported
Soda AshSodium carbonate, mined from trona rock or made from salt, and the second ingredient in almost…	Industrial Minerals	19,000thousand metric tons · Mine production: natural, rounded	25,000,000	—	—
Fluorspar criticalCalcium fluoride, the mineral that every fluorine atom in industry ultimately comes from —…	Industrial Minerals	10,000thousand metric tons · Mine production	330,000	China60% of world production	100%
Boron criticalAn element that makes glass resist thermal shock, fibreglass strong, and — with iron and…	Industrial Minerals	not published	—	Turkeyshare withheld	—
Silicon Carbide & AbrasivesMan-made grit — silicon carbide and fused alumina — harder than almost every natural mineral…	Industrial Minerals	not published	—	—	—

Photographs on this page · 5

Königswartha Caminau Kaolin quarry Aerial.jpg · Gunther Tschuch · CC BY-SA 4.0
Trona - USGS Mineral Specimens 1116.jpg · Andrew Silver · Public domain
Fluorite crystals.jpg · Marek Novotňák · CC BY-SA 4.0
Borax crystals.jpg · Aram Dulyan ( User:Aramgutang ) · Public domain
Craftsman hand-carving a traditional stone grinding wheel (chakki), Kha… · Suyash Dwivedi · CC BY-SA 4.0

Every photograph is from Wikimedia Commons and is used under the licence shown.