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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Vanadium criticalA metal that makes rebar dramatically stronger in tiny doses, and that can also store…
|
Steel & Alloy Metals | 110,000metric tons · Mine production | 21,000 | China75% of world production | 41% |
|
CadmiumA toxic soft metal recovered from zinc refining, now used mainly in thin-film solar panels…
|
Steel & Alloy Metals | 23,000metric tons · Refinery production | — | China41% of world production† | 25% |
† 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
- Iron and slag tapping from a blast furnace tap hole — Випуск продуктів … · Blast furnace chip worker · CC BY-SA 3.0
- World- Vanadium Production,*1946 - DPLA - 3e24602f809408ce766ef8a40e074… · Central Intelligence Agency · Public domain
- Cadmium (Element - 48) 3.jpg · James St. John · CC BY 2.0
Every photograph is from Wikimedia Commons and is used under the licence shown.