Last updated: October 2026
Who holds the minerals the modern economy runs on — in figures the Bureau has actually published.
Modern economies run on a short list of minerals whose supply is concentrated in very few hands. This page gathers the concentration figures the Bureau has actually published on its mineral pages — most of them from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It also lists, honestly, the minerals for which the Bureau’s pages publish no production share at all.
The pattern is stark. For gallium, bismuth, tellurium, indium, and rare earths, a single country — China — holds between about two-thirds and nearly all of published production or refining. For other minerals the Bureau’s pages rank holders by a power score rather than by production volume, and this page does not convert those scores into production shares.
| Mineral | Top holder and published share | Figure | Source cited on the Bureau page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallium | China — primary low-purity production | 99% | USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025/2026 |
| Bismuth | China — refinery production, 2025 | 88% (14,000 t of 16,000 t) | USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 |
| Tellurium | China — refined output, 2024 | About 75% | USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 |
| Indium | China — production, 2024 | About 70% (760 t of 1,080 t) | USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 |
| Rare earths (all elements, mine production) | China — mine production, 2025 | About 69% (270,000 t of about 390,000 t REO) | USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 |
| Rare earths (refining and separation) | China — refining share | Up to about 91% | International Energy Agency (IEA), as cited on the Bureau’s rare-earth pages |
| Germanium | China — production (best estimate) | Roughly 60% | USGS-based estimates; the USGS notes global refinery and recycling data are limited and difficult to verify |
| Terbium | China — share of US imports, 2021–24 | 100% of US imports of terbium compounds and metals | USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (import sources 2021–24) |
| Dysprosium | China — export-control impact, 2025 | Shipments fell roughly 50% after April 2025 controls; Japan received 4% of its normal supply; Germany received none | Bureau mineral page, citing post-control shipment reports |
| Neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, europium, yttrium | China — grouped under rare earths overall | About 69% mine production; up to about 91% refining | USGS / IEA, as cited on the Bureau’s rare-earth pages. The USGS does not publish per-element production shares. |
For the following minerals, the Bureau’s mineral pages name a highest-ranked holder by power score — a measure of national power and leverage, not production volume — and publish no production share. This page does not invent one: cobalt, lithium, copper, nickel, uranium, tungsten, manganese, chromium, platinum, tin, titanium, iron ore, oil, natural gas, gold, silver, zinc, and lead. Treat any production share quoted elsewhere for these minerals as outside the Bureau’s published figures unless a source is given.
Shares are reproduced exactly as published on the Bureau’s mineral pages, with the source each page cites. Production shares, refining shares, and import shares measure different things and are not interchangeable: a country can dominate refining without dominating mining. The germanium figure is explicitly a best estimate — the USGS does not publish a precise country share. The dysprosium and terbium rows describe control and import dependence, not world production shares. Year and basis (mine production, refinery production, refined output, imports) are stated in every row.
