Where battery minerals are mined
The five minerals most associated with rechargeable batteries are mined in very different patterns. In 2025 Australia led lithium with 32% of world output, DR Congo supplied 73% of cobalt, Indonesia 67% of nickel, and China 78% of natural graphite. Manganese is the most spread of the five, with South Africa at 38%.
| Mineral | Largest producer | Second | World 2025 | Change on 2024 | Largest reserves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | Australia (32%) | China (21%) | 290,000 metric tons | +31% | Chile |
| Cobalt | DR Congo (73%) | Indonesia (14%) | 310,000 metric tons | +2.6% | DR Congo |
| Nickel | Indonesia (67%) | Philippines (6.9%) | 3.9 million metric tons | +5.1% | Indonesia |
| Natural graphite | China (78%) | Madagascar (4.4%) | 1.8 million metric tons | +16% | China |
| Manganese | South Africa (38%) | Gabon (25%) | 20 million metric tons | +7% | Australia |
None of these minerals goes only into batteries. USGS estimates that batteries took 88% of lithium use worldwide, while the 2025 critical minerals list names metallurgy alongside batteries for cobalt, nickel and manganese, and fuel cells and lubricants alongside batteries for graphite. The tables measure mine output, whatever the eventual use.
Lithium: the fastest growth in the tables
World lithium mine production rose 31% from 2024 to 2025, to 290,000 metric tons of lithium content, excluding U.S. output, which USGS withholds. No other commodity with world totals for both years grew faster. The increase was broad: Mali rose 1121%, Argentina 67% and China 50%. Measured in lithium content, the three largest producers, Australia, China, and Chile, supplied 72% between them.
The reserve picture differs. Chile holds the largest lithium reserves, 25% of the world figure, ahead of Australia. At the 2025 rate of output, world reserves would last about 128 years; that ratio is a snapshot, since reserves are revised as deposits are proven.
Cobalt and nickel: two dominant producers
Cobalt is the clearest case of single-country supply among the five. DR Congo mined 230,000 metric tons in 2025 and also holds 50% of world reserves. Indonesia was second with 14%, after a rise of 26% on 2024; no other country reached 3%. Nickel follows a similar pattern:Indonesia mined 2.6 million metric tons of the world’s 3.9 million metric tons, nearly ten times the next producer, the Philippines.
Graphite: China plus a growing African group
China produced 1.4 million metric tons of natural graphite in 2025. The next producers were all far smaller, but several grew quickly: Tanzania went from 27,000 to 75,000 metric tons (+178%), and Mozambique and Madagascar are also among the six largest producers. The world total rose 16%, the 2nd fastest growth of any commodity.
Not every producer grew
Rising world totals hide steep falls in some countries. Among the listed producers of these five minerals, 6 cut output by 20% or more from 2024 to 2025: Australia in nickel (−54%), South Korea in natural graphite (−50%), Cuba in cobalt (−42%), Canada in natural graphite (−32%), the Philippines in nickel (−24%), and Australia in cobalt (−23%). The largest of these was in nickel, where Australia went from 98,000 metric tons to 45,000 metric tons. The country pages list every change of this kind for each producer.
Manganese: Africa’s mineral
Three of the four largest manganese producers in 2025 were African: South Africa, Gabon, and Ghana together supplied 72% of world output, measured in manganese content. Ghana grew fastest among them, +56% on 2024. Reserves tell a slightly different story: Australia holds 32% of the world figure, just ahead of South Africa at 31%, even though Australia mined only 7.9% of 2025 output.
Where U.S. imports come from
The import-source lists show how supply reaches the United States, which is not always from the largest miner. For lithium, Chile (54%) and Argentina (43%) supplied almost all U.S. imports in 2021–24. For manganese ore, Gabon led with 64%. For natural graphite, China supplied 46%, a smaller share than its 78% of world mining. Cobalt imports, measured as metal, oxide and salts, came first from Norway and Finland, neither of which appears among the largest cobalt miners; the imported product is refined material, not ore.
The United States
The United States relies on net imports for all of its natural graphite and manganese and for 79% of its cobalt and 41% of its nickel consumption, according to USGS. For lithium, USGS gives only a band: net imports covered more than 50% of consumption in 2025, because U.S. production figures are withheld. Each mineral page shows the five-year series and the main import sources.
Reading these figures
Lithium, cobalt and nickel are reported in contained metal, manganese production in manganese content, and graphite in metric tons of natural graphite. Because the bases differ, tonnages are never compared across the five; only shares and percentage changes are. Synthetic graphite is not part of the USGS natural graphite table, so the graphite figures cover mined material only.
Sources
U.S. Geological Survey, 2026, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: doi.org/10.3133/mcs2026. Shares, ranks and changes are worked out from the USGS tables as described on Reading the figures. Look up any mineral in the producer explorer.