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
9 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 | Leading producer | U.S. imported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Silicon criticalThe second-most-common element in the Earth's crust — ordinary sand — purified until only one…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 5,000thousand metric tons · Ferrosilicon | China87% of world production | — |
|
Gallium criticalA silvery metal that melts in your hand, and the basis of the compound semiconductors in fast…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 900,000kilograms · Primary production | China100% of world production | 100% |
|
Germanium criticalThe element the very first transistors were made from, now used mainly for infrared lenses and…
|
Semiconductor Materials | not published | Chinashare not published | 50% |
|
Indium criticalA soft metal whose oxide is both transparent and electrically conductive — the invisible wiring…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 1,100metric tons · Refinery production | China69% of world production | 100% |
|
Arsenic criticalFamous as a poison, but in ultra-pure form it is half of gallium arsenide, the compound behind…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 61,000metric tons · Production (arsenic trioxide, gross weight) | Peru49% of world production | 100% |
|
High-Purity QuartzQuartz sand so free of other elements that it can be melted into the crucible a silicon crystal…
|
Semiconductor Materials | not published | — | — |
|
NeonA noble gas so unreactive it forms no compounds at all, separated out of ordinary air in tiny…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 800.0million liters · Rare gases production, (million liters) | United States14% of world production† | 52% |
|
KryptonA rare noble gas, about one part per million of the air, separated only where enough air is…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 110.0million liters · Rare gases production, (million liters) | United States1% of world production† | 93% |
|
XenonThe rarest stable gas in the atmosphere — under one part in ten million — and the heaviest…
|
Semiconductor Materials | 12.00million liters · Rare gases production, (million liters) | United States1% of world production† | 98% |
† 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 · 10
- Wafer 2 20140922.jpg · Santi · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Wafer 20110212.jpg · Sangitiana Fararano · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Plastic bottle containing gallium metal.JPG · Pixelmaniac pictures ( Leave a reply ) · CC0
- Miniman M 703 germanium crystal radio made in Japan late 1950s.jpg · R. Henrik Nilsson · CC BY 4.0
- Indium wetting glass.jpg · Schtone · Public domain
- Native arsenic2.jpg · Miguel Calvo · CC BY 4.0
- Geode-with-encrustation-of-quartz-crystals-on-a-base-of-limonite-01.jpg · CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Neon tubes (32703).jpg · Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Spectre tubes à gaz.jpg · Alchemist-hp , derivative work by Poke2001 · CC BY-SA 2.0 de
- Three xenon flashtubes and a krypton arc lamp.jpg · Zaereth ( talk ) · Public domain
Every photograph is from Wikimedia Commons and is used under the licence shown.