Turkey produces roughly 40% of the world's borates. What boron is, what it makes possible, and why one state company matters.
Last updated: October 2026
Boron is a metalloid mined as borate salts from dried lake beds. Turkey produces roughly 40% of world output through a single state-owned company, Eti Maden — the closest thing the borate market has to a national champion.
Borate production shares, 2024 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025). Figures exclude the United States, withheld in some years; US share is an industry estimate.
Boron is a metalloid that never occurs free in nature. It is mined as borate minerals — borax, kernite, ulexite and colemanite — from evaporite deposits left by ancient lakes, mainly in Turkey, California, Argentina and Chile.
Glass and fiberglass insulation, ceramics and enamels, detergents, fertilizers (boron is an essential plant micronutrient), semiconductors (boron doping), flame retardants, and nuclear reactor control rods (boron absorbs neutrons).
Turkey, with roughly 40% of world borate production (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025), through the state-owned Eti Maden, which controls the world's largest borate reserves at Kırka and Bigadiç.
China is a modest borate producer at roughly 6% of world output, and a net importer of borates. Boron is one of the few critical-mineral markets where China is not the dominant force.
Low-Moderate. Turkey dominates but the United States (California) is a strong second, and Argentina and Chile are expanding. No export controls exist. The main risk is concentration in one Turkish state company, not scarcity.
Boron is a metalloid mined as borate salts from ancient lake beds. Turkey produces roughly 40% of world output through the state-owned Eti Maden. It is one of the few critical-mineral markets where China is not dominant — and where supply risk comes from concentration in one Turkish company, not scarcity.
Boron is a metalloid that never occurs free in nature. It is mined as borate minerals — borax, kernite, ulexite and colemanite — from evaporite deposits left by ancient lakes, mainly in Turkey, California, Argentina and Chile.
Glass and fiberglass insulation, ceramics and enamels, detergents, fertilizers (boron is an essential plant micronutrient), semiconductors (boron doping), flame retardants, and nuclear reactor control rods (boron absorbs neutrons).
Turkey, with roughly 40% of world borate production (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025), through the state-owned Eti Maden, which controls the world's largest borate reserves at Kırka and Bigadiç.
