Which minerals the United States imports most
In 2025 the United States relied on net imports for all of its consumption of 14 mineral commodities covered by the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, and for 75% or more of 17 others. 12 of the 14 fully import-reliant commodities are on the U.S. 2025 critical minerals list. At the same time the country was a net exporter of 13 commodities, among them beryllium, boron, clays, diatomite, and helium and rare gases.
Net import reliance is the USGS measure of how much of U.S. consumption comes from abroad: imports minus exports, adjusted for changes in stocks, as a percentage of apparent consumption. A value of 100% means net imports covered all apparent consumption in the form USGS measures; a value marked “E” means the country exported more than it imported. It is a supply measure, not a statement about risk.
Fully import-reliant
| Mineral | Critical mineral | Leading import source 2021–24 |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenic | Yes | Malaysia (99%) |
| Asbestos | No | Brazil (100%) |
| Fluorspar | Yes | Mexico (64%) |
| Gallium | Yes | Canada (28%) |
| heavy rare earths | Yes | China (100%) |
| Indium | Yes | South Korea (25%) |
| Manganese | Yes | Gabon (64%) |
| Natural graphite | Yes | China (46%) |
| Niobium | Yes | Australia (62%) |
| scandium | Yes | Japan (89%) |
| Strontium | No | Mexico (>99%) |
| Tantalum | Yes | Australia (64%) |
| Titanium metal and titanium dioxide | Yes | Japan (77%) |
| Yttrium | Yes | China (70%) |
The list mixes metals central to electronics and defence, such as gallium, indium and niobium, with industrial minerals such as fluorspar and strontium. The import sources differ sharply. For fluorspar, Mexico supplied 64% of U.S. imports in 2021–24; for gallium metal the list is spread across Canada, Japan, China, and Germany, none above 28%.
Between 75% and 100%
| Mineral | 2025 | 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Gemstones | 99% | 99 / 99 / 99 / 99 / 99 |
| Manufactured abrasives | >95% | >95 / >95 / >95 / >95 / >95 |
| Bismuth | 92% | 92 / 97 / 94 / 90 / 92 |
| Potash | 92% | 93 / 92 / 93 / 94 / 92 |
| Antimony | 91% | 85 / 81 / 81 / 86 / 91 |
| Titanium mineral concentrates | 88% | 90 / 81 / 86 / 87 / 88 |
| Iron oxide pigments | 84% | 87 / 85 / 80 / 82 / 84 |
| Dimension stone | 81% | 84 / 84 / 82 / 82 / 81 |
| Peat | 80% | 84 / 80 / 78 / 79 / 80 |
| Chromium | 79% | 76 / 77 / 68 / 77 / 79 |
| Cobalt | 79% | 73 / 73 / 69 / 74 / 79 |
| Silver | 77% | 76 / 67 / 69 / 68 / 77 |
| Tin | 77% | 80 / 77 / 73 / 75 / 77 |
| Barite | >75% | >75 / >75 / >75 / >75 / >75 |
| Bauxite and alumina | >75% | >75 / >75 / >75 / >75 / >75 |
| Magnesium metal | >75% | >25 / >75 / >75 / >50 / >75 |
| Rhenium | 75% | 70 / 69 / 61 / 68 / 75 |
The five-year columns show that most of these values moved only a few points between 2021 and 2025. Bands such as “more than 75%” appear where USGS withholds U.S. production figures to protect company data; the band is shown as published, never replaced with a guessed number. In 2025, 14 commodities had a banded value rather than a plain percentage, and 4 had no reliance figure at all.
What changed since 2021
For 49 commodities USGS gives a plain percentage in both 2021 and 2025, so the change can be measured. Reliance rose by ten points or more for 4 of them and fell by ten points or more for 4. The largest rise was for platinum-group metals, from 35% to 57%, followed by talc and pyrophyllite (7% to 23%) and copper (44% to 57%). The largest fall was for industrial diamond, from 55% to 35%, followed by vanadium (61% to 41%) and feldspar and nepheline syenite (28% to 18%). Most of the remaining series moved within a few points over the five years.
Critical minerals
Of the 39 critical-list commodities with a 2025 reliance figure, 30 relied on net imports for more than half of their consumption (counting both plain percentages above 50 and bands such as “more than 50%”), and 3 were net exports. Reliance and list membership do not line up one to one: asbestos had 100% net import reliance in 2025 and is not on the list, while zinc, on the list, showed net exports of ores and concentrates.
Net exporters
The United States exported more than it imported of 13 commodities in 2025. These include beryllium, boron, clays, diatomite, helium and rare gases, iron and steel scrap, iron ore, kyanite and related minerals, molybdenum, industrial sand and gravel, soda ash, natural zeolites, and zinc. Some of them are produced in the United States on a large scale: the country was the largest producer in the world tables for beryllium, diatomite, helium and rare gases, industrial sand and gravel, and soda ash. Beryllium moved from net imports in 2021 and 2022 to net exports from 2023, according to the USGS series.
What the measure misses
Net import reliance is calculated on the form USGS tracks for each commodity. Minerals that enter the country already inside finished goods, such as rare-earth magnets in motors or tantalum in capacitors, are not counted, so actual dependence through supply chains can be higher than the figure suggests. Conversely, a country can show 100% import reliance for a commodity it barely uses. The mineral pages give the tonnage of U.S. imports and consumption next to the percentage, so the scale is visible.
The figures are for 2025 and are USGS estimates. Import sources cover 2021–24, the most recent full period USGS uses, and refer to the product named on each page.
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.