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Semiconductor Materials

The catalogue

Semiconductor Materials

The ultra-pure elements and compounds that chips are grown, doped and wired with.

Wafer 2 20140922 · Santi · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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 →

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	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	—
Tellurium criticalA brittle, silvery element recovered from the slime at the bottom of a copper refinery tank…	Semiconductor Materials	1,000metric tons · Refinery production	China80% of world production	25%

Photographs on this page · 3

Wafer 2 20140922.jpg · Santi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Wafer 20110212.jpg · Sangitiana Fararano · CC BY-SA 2.0
Tellurium crystals.jpg · Hi-Res Images of Chemical Elements · CC BY 3.0

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