All · 146
Rare Earth Elements · 18Aerospace & Defence Materials · 10Agricultural Minerals · 3Battery Materials · 5Copper & Electrical Materials · 4Energy Raw Materials · 7Industrial Minerals · 35Nuclear Materials · 5Precious Metals · 10Semiconductor Materials · 11Steel & Alloy Metals · 13Wood & Forest Products · 25
Critical Mineral · 63Strategic · 36Construction · 35Byproduct Only · 27Energy Transition · 26Defence · 24Chip Chain · 17Forest Product · 12Recyclable at Scale · 9Magnet Chain · 8Hardwood · 8Softwood · 7Renewable · 6Food Chain · 6Engineered Wood · 4Grid Chain · 2
2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SulfurA yellow element stripped out of oil and gas to stop it polluting, then turned into sulfuric…
|
Industrial Minerals | 84,000thousand metric tons · Production, all forms | — | China23% of world production† | — |
|
IodineA purple-black element that turns straight from solid to vapour, extracted from ancient nitrate…
|
Industrial Minerals | 34,000metric tons · Mine production | 6,300,000 | — | 50% |
† Worked out from the USGS production table: the leading country’s output divided by the world total. Where the USGS publishes the share itself, that figure is shown instead.
Photographs on this page · 3
- Königswartha Caminau Kaolin quarry Aerial.jpg · Gunther Tschuch · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Union Sulphur Co Reserve Sulphur Storage in Louisiana.jpg · Underwood and Underwood · Public domain
- Iodine crystals, 99.9% purity.jpg · Dnn87 · CC BY 3.0
Every photograph is from Wikimedia Commons and is used under the licence shown.