How to use Mineral export concentration

The tool shows, for 25 minerals, how far world exports depend on a single country or a few, and how that has changed since 2012. Use it to assess the risk of relying on one supplier, to prepare a sourcing or investment strategy and to follow the minerals on the EU list.

Questions it answers:

• Which minerals depend most on a single exporting country?
• Has the dependence of natural graphite on China grown or shrunk since 2012?
• How many countries make 80% of a mineral's world exports?

1. 1YearBy default, the latest complete year. The most recent year is marked provisional: some countries have not reported it yet.
2. 2Mineral (optional)Leave «all» to see the table of the 25 minerals, or choose one to see it in depth. You can also click a mineral's name in the table.
3. 3Category and EU list (optional)To see only metal ores, industrial minerals… or only the minerals on the EU's strategic or critical raw materials list.
4. 4The result updates by itselfWhen you change a selector, the result changes at once — there is no button. The page address keeps your choices: you can bookmark it or share it with your team.
5. 5Export as PDFThe «Export PDF» button below the selectors downloads the result on screen as a KEYSTONE. report: the choices you made, the tables and the reading notes. Every page carries your name and licence ID. Included in the Data and Professional plans.

1. 1MineralTagged «EU strategic» or «EU critical» when it is in Regulation (EU) 2024/1252. An asterisk means the customs code covers more than the material in the regulation (e.g. battery-grade graphite).
2. 2Largest exporterThe country that exported most of that mineral in the chosen year.
3. 3Share of the largestThe part of world exports coming from that country. For EU strategic minerals, a tick marks 65%: the regulation's benchmark for the EU's supply.
4. 4HHI indexMeasures the concentration of the whole market, not just the leader: the sum of the squared shares, from 0 to 10,000. Below 1,500 concentration is low, 1,500–2,500 moderate, above 2,500 high.
5. 5TrendThe largest exporter's share year by year since 2012: a rising line is a growing dependence.

1. 1Largest exporterIts share and the country's name.
2. 2Top 3The share of the three largest together.
3. 3HHI indexWith its band: low, moderate or high.
4. 4Countries for 80%How many exporters together make 80% of the total: the fewer, the more concentrated.
5. 5Ten largest exportersEach one's share in the chosen year and in 2012, and the change in percentage points. «new» means the country was not among the listed exporters in 2012.

A company buys Mineral A, an EU strategic raw material, and wants to know whether it depends on a single supplier.

• Country P exports 72.0% of the world total, against 41.5% in 2012: 30.5 percentage points more. Dependence has nearly doubled in a decade.
• The three largest make 91.5% and two countries are enough to reach 80%. The HHI is 5,410: high concentration.
• Country Q, the second, fell from 22.0% to 12.3% (−9.7 p.p.): the alternative to Country P is losing weight.
• Country P's share is above the 65% tick: for a strategic mineral, a signal to watch — bearing in mind that the tool measures world exports of ore, not the EU's supply.

Use concentration to spot risks and ask the right questions: are there alternative suppliers? Is the dominant country gaining or losing weight? Then go deeper in the world minerals dashboard and the Critical Minerals Outlook publications.

• Exports, not production. A country that processes its ore before exporting (like China in tungsten) weighs little here, even as a large producer.
• Listed largest exporters. Shares are computed over the largest exporters of each customs code and year (50 per code), not over every country in the world.
• Provisional year. The most recent year is not complete yet: concentration may change when the other countries report.
• EU list. The 65% benchmark concerns the EU's supply of strategic materials, not world exports: here it is a reference only.
• Broad codes. An asterisk on the EU tag means the customs code covers more than the material named in the regulation.

Which minerals are included?

25 minerals with their own customs code: metal ores (copper, nickel, bauxite, tungsten…), industrial minerals (graphite, fluorspar, borates, phosphates, feldspar…) and others.

Why is lithium not there?

Lithium ore has no customs code of its own: it is mixed with other minerals in a catch-all code. Lithium is covered by the Critical Minerals Outlook publications.

Who can see the figures?

Subscribers to the Data and Professional plans. Without a plan, the tool shows the list of minerals but not the shares, the indices or the order.

When is the data updated?

Automatically, whenever the world minerals dashboard is updated with new UN Comtrade data.