Where are the reserves, and who is mining them?

South Africa holds 83% of the world's known palladium reserves, the largest single-country share among 28 minerals. For 14 of them the country with the most reserves has a share of reserves and a share of production that differ by 15 percentage points or more, which is where reserves and mining are least aligned.

Reserves are the part of a deposit that could be mined at a profit under current conditions, as estimated by USGS, so they rise with new discoveries and higher prices and are not a fixed stock. "Years at current output" divides world reserves by world production in the latest year. It is a measure of how much is known, not a forecast of when a mineral runs out. Click a heading to sort. For how much has already been mined, and how reserves have changed over time, see how much is left.

Largest holder of reserves for each mineral, against its share of mining
Mineral	Largest reserves	Share of reserves	Its share of mining	Years of reserves at current output
Palladium	South Africa	83%	37%	399
Platinum	South Africa	83%	71%	448
Zirconium	Australia	71%	33%	65
Phosphate rock	Morocco	68%	14%	292
Niobium	Brazil	66%	93%	191
Rare earths	China	58%	69%	193
Tungsten	China	53%	79%	55
Cobalt	DR Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)	50%	74%	39
Vanadium	Australia	47%	not in top 25	189
Molybdenum	China	45%	37%	66
Nickel	Indonesia	44%	67%	36
Lead	Australia	36%	11%	21
Antimony	China	35%	36%	22
Titanium	Australia	34%	8.3%	53
Potash	Russia	34%	20%	121
Fluorspar	China	33%	60%	33
Graphite	China	32%	78%	172
Manganese	Australia	32%	8%	90
Chromium	South Africa	29%	45%	24
Iron ore	Australia	29%	38%	78
Zinc	Australia	27%	8.5%	18
Aluminum	Guinea	26%	not in top 25	392
Bauxite	Guinea	26%	34%	66
Lithium	Chile	25%	19%	128
Tin	Indonesia	23%	21%	21
Copper	Rest of world	21%	not in top 25	43
Gold	Australia	20%	8.5%	20
Silver	Peru	18%	14%	23

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: world mine production and reserves by country. Years of reserves are shown only where reserves and production are on the same basis and both come from USGS. Reserve estimates for some minerals are rounded or withheld by USGS, so shares are approximate.

More patterns

Concentration: How much of each commodity comes from one country?
Producer or exporter?: Is the biggest producer also the biggest seller abroad?
Prices in real terms: Which prices are records once inflation is removed?
Growth and decline: Whose output is rising or falling fastest?
Linked prices and seasons: Which prices move together, and which have a season?
A century of real prices: Are minerals getting scarcer, judging by their real prices since 1900?
Supplier exposure: Which big buyers lean on one supplier for critical minerals?
Trade after export controls: What happened to a country's exports after it controlled them?
Export share history: Who has gained and lost share of world exports since 2000?
Prices around export controls: What happened to mineral prices after export controls?
Export basket prices: What would a country's commodity exports have fetched at each month's prices?
Substitution coverage: How large are other exporters' sales to other buyers next to an importer's biggest supplier?
Critical risk matrix: Which critical minerals combine concentrated mining, export controls and import reliance?
Country reserve life: Which producing countries have the least of what they mine?
Prices and cumulative output: Do prices fall as the world digs up more of a mineral?
US import reliance and recycling: How much of each mineral does the United States import, and how much comes from scrap?
Data confidence: How firm are each commodity's production numbers?
Export controls and bans: Which governments restrict exports of minerals, and what is still in force?
Chokepoints: Which narrow passages do the world's commodities depend on?
By-product minerals: Which minerals are by-products of other metals?
Peak production: Which minerals and fuels are still setting records, and which peaked years ago?
Supply concentration: Which commodities depend on the fewest suppliers?
Land or yield?: Did output grow because farmers planted more or farmed better?
Supply shocks and prices: When world output falls, do prices rise?
Category price indices: How have energy, metals and food prices moved since 1960?
Drawdowns and volatility: How far do prices fall, and do they recover?
Stocks and prices: Are prices lower when the world holds more stock?
Which prices follow oil?: How closely does each commodity track crude oil?
How reliable is the data?: How much of world output rests on estimates?
Net exporters and importers: Who is a net seller and who a net buyer?
Country leaders: Which countries lead across the most commodities?
Export dependency: Which countries rely on one commodity?
Concentration over time: Has production spread out or narrowed?
Import dependency: Which countries buy most of a commodity from one supplier?
Supplier shifts: Who gained and lost importers' business?
Trade price against benchmark: Does traded product sell above or below the benchmark price?
Prices in other currencies: How much of a price move is the dollar?
Do prices lead each other?: Does one commodity price move before another?
Volatility over time: Are prices more volatile than they used to be?
Seasonality: Which prices have a calendar-month pattern?
Price ratios: What does one commodity buy of another, and is that high or low?
El Niño and prices: Do El Niño and La Niña years move commodity prices?
Who consumes it: Which countries consume each commodity, and how much per person?
Self-sufficiency: Which large markets depend on imports, and which produce far more than they use?
Trade flows: Who sells each commodity to whom?

Every figure is computed from the same tables as the commodity pages. The full set is in patterns.json, and single facts from it appear each day on the facts page.