Which mineral outputs grew or shrank in 2025
Between 2024 and 2025, world output rose by 3% or more for 15 of the 72 minerals with USGS world totals for both years, fell by 3% or more for 8, and stayed within 3% for the other 49. The largest rise was lithium, up 31%; the largest fall was silicon, down 16%.
The comparison uses the world total of each mineral’s main table: mine production for most, smelter or refinery output where that is the main measure. Both years are rounded by USGS, and 2025 is an estimate, so changes of one or two percent are within rounding and are treated here as flat.
| Mineral | World 2024 | World 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | 222,000 metric tons | 290,000 metric tons | +31% |
| Natural graphite | 1.55 million metric tons | 1.8 million metric tons | +16% |
| Strontium | 400,000 metric tons | 450,000 metric tons | +12% |
| Zinc | 11.9 million metric tons | 13 million metric tons | +9.2% |
| Barite | 8 million metric tons | 8.7 million metric tons | +8.8% |
| Manganese | 18.7 million metric tons | 20 million metric tons | +7% |
| Gallium | 848,000 kilograms | 900,000 kilograms | +6.1% |
| Nickel | 3.71 million metric tons | 3.9 million metric tons | +5.1% |
| Potash | 46.7 million metric tons | 49 million metric tons | +4.9% |
| Natural zeolites | 1.24 million metric tons | 1.3 million metric tons | +4.8% |
| Cement | 3.9 billion metric tons | 3.8 billion metric tons | −2.6% |
| Fluorspar | 10.3 million metric tons | 10 million metric tons | −2.9% |
| Talc and pyrophyllite | 7.2 million metric tons | 6.9 million metric tons | −4.2% |
| Platinum-group metals | 179,000 kilograms | 170,000 kilograms | −5% |
| Peat | 18 million metric tons | 17 million metric tons | −5.6% |
| Vanadium | 118,000 metric tons | 110,000 metric tons | −6.8% |
| Natural mica | 376,000 metric tons | 350,000 metric tons | −6.9% |
| Antimony | 119,000 metric tons | 110,000 metric tons | −7.6% |
| Zirconium and hafnium | 1.3 million metric tons | 1.2 million metric tons | −7.7% |
| Silicon | 5.5 million metric tons | 4.6 million metric tons | −16% |
The biggest rises
Lithium’s 31% increase came from several countries at once, as the battery minerals note shows. Natural graphite grew 16%, with the largest percentage rises among producers above 1% of world output in Tanzania and Mozambique, although China added the most tonnage. Strontium rose 12% as Iran, the largest producer, went from 200,000 to 250,000 metric tons. In a table with few producers one country can move the world total, which is why each mineral page shows the change country by country.
The biggest falls
Silicon fell most. China, which produced 87% of world silicon metal in 2025, reported 4,800 thousand metric tons in 2024 and 4,000 in 2025, a change of −17%. Because China dominates the table, its change sets the world figure. Zirconium and hafnium (−7.7%) and antimony (−7.6%) followed.
The largest moves by country
Looking below the world totals, the biggest relative changes among producers holding at least 5% of a world total were rises for Argentina in lithium (+67%), Ghana in manganese (+56%), China in lithium (+50%), and Zimbabwe in lithium (+40%), and falls for Bolivia in tin (−29%), Latvia in peat (−26%), Russia in titanium metal and titanium dioxide (−24%), and the Philippines in nickel (−24%). Each of these is large enough to change the country’s rank or share on the mineral page.
| Mineral | Country | Share 2025 | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | Argentina | 7.9% | +67% |
| Manganese | Ghana | 9.9% | +56% |
| Lithium | China | 21% | +50% |
| Lithium | Zimbabwe | 9.7% | +40% |
| Titanium mineral concentrates | Australia | 8.3% | +30% |
| Zirconium and hafnium | Mozambique | 13% | +29% |
| Copper | Russia | 5.6% | +28% |
| Cobalt | Indonesia | 14% | +26% |
| Cadmium | Japan | 5.6% | −18% |
| Rare earths | Burma (Myanmar) | 5.6% | −18% |
| Antimony | Russia | 29% | −20% |
| Natural mica | Madagascar | 20% | −22% |
| Nickel | Philippines | 6.9% | −24% |
| Titanium metal and titanium dioxide | Russia | 6.8% | −24% |
| Peat | Latvia | 12% | −26% |
| Tin | Bolivia | 5.2% | −29% |
Which producers grew most often
Counting every listing with published figures for both years, Russia rose by 3% or more in 13 tables and fell by 3% or more in 11, the United States rose by 3% or more in 16 tables and fell by 3% or more in 7, and China rose by 3% or more in 13 tables and fell by 3% or more in 6. Most other countries had only a handful of listings that moved either way. A count like this treats a small mineral and a large one alike, so it describes breadth of change, not tonnage.
The United States in the change tables
The United States is listed in almost every world table, often with withheld figures. Where both years are published, its largest changes in 2025 were cobalt (+50%), platinum-group metals (−40%), nickel (+34%), potash (+22%), and molybdenum (+18%). In 16 of its 42 comparable listings output rose by 3% or more, and in 7 it fell by 3% or more. U.S. figures in these tables are the same estimates that appear in the U.S. statistics on each mineral page.
Why most minerals barely moved
Many tables show identical 2024 and 2025 figures for a large share of countries: 299 of the 831 country rows with both years published, or 36%, did not change at all. Since USGS labels 2025 as estimated, an unchanged figure should be read as an estimate, not as evidence that output held steady. The next edition will revise many of these numbers.
The same caution applies to country-level changes on the mineral and producer pages: a change of zero next to a round number is an estimate like any other 2025 value.
Using the change figures
Percentage changes are unit-free, so they can be compared across minerals in a way tonnages cannot. A 10% rise in gold and a 10% rise in salt are the same relative change even though the tonnages differ by a factor of tens of thousands. The country pages list each producer’s change for every mineral it is listed for, and the producer explorer shows the change column for any mineral. Where a table has a second measure, such as refinery output for copper or platinum next to palladium, the mineral page gives the change for each measure in its own column, so the two are never mixed.
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.