# Where does boron come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/boron/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/boron.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

The biggest exporter of refined borax and other disodium tetraborate (HS 284019) is Turkey (Türkiye) (64% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Boron is mined as borate minerals in a few dry basins, in Turkey (Türkiye), the Andes and California's Mojave Desert, and the customs data give a separate export leader by value for each step of processing in 2024: raw borates, Turkey (Türkiye) with 56%; refined borax, Turkey (Türkiye) with 64%; boric acid and oxide, United States with 34%. The origin picture depends on which step of processing you look at.

*An element used almost entirely as borates: mined as borate minerals such as tincal, kernite and colemanite, refined into borax and boric acid, and used in glass and fiberglass, ceramics, detergents, agriculture and, as boron compounds, in magnets and fire retardants.* Also called: B, borates, borax, boric acid, boron minerals.

## Who exports and imports boron?

Boron moves in three steps: borate ore or brine is mined, concentrated or refined into borax and other borates, and part of that is converted to boric acid. The customs lines separate the three, and the countries that lead in one are not the ones that lead in the next.

### Exporters of natural borates and concentrates, and natural boric acid with not more than 85% h3bo3 (HS 252800), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $257.5 million | 56% |
| 2 | Bolivia | $102.9 million | 23% |
| 3 | Argentina | $35.5 million | 7.8% |
| 4 | Austria | $13.7 million | 3% |
| 5 | Chile | $12.7 million | 2.8% |
| 6 | Luxembourg | $6.8 million | 1.5% |
| 7 | Peru | $4.6 million | 1% |
| 8 | Spain | $3.4 million | 0.7% |
| 9 | United States | $3.2 million | 0.7% |
| 10 | Netherlands | $2.6 million | 0.6% |
| 11 | China | $2.2 million | 0.5% |
| 12 | Finland | $1.7 million | 0.4% |
| 13 | Malaysia | $1.5 million | 0.3% |
| 14 | Russia | $1 million | 0.2% |
| 15 | India | $944,356 | 0.2% |

### Importers of natural borates and concentrates, and natural boric acid with not more than 85% h3bo3 (HS 252800), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $110.5 million | 24% |
| 2 | Brazil | $97.9 million | 21% |
| 3 | India | $47.7 million | 10% |
| 4 | United States | $27.1 million | 5.9% |
| 5 | Czechia | $13.7 million | 3% |
| 6 | Peru | $12.6 million | 2.8% |
| 7 | Austria | $11.1 million | 2.4% |
| 8 | Slovakia | $9.3 million | 2% |
| 9 | Other Asia, nes | $8.9 million | 1.9% |
| 10 | Belgium | $8.7 million | 1.9% |
| 11 | Indonesia | $8.5 million | 1.9% |
| 12 | Malaysia | $7.9 million | 1.7% |
| 13 | Russia | $7 million | 1.5% |
| 14 | Netherlands | $6.7 million | 1.5% |
| 15 | Japan | $5.7 million | 1.2% |

### Exporters of oxides of boron; boric acids (HS 281000), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | $222.2 million | 34% |
| 2 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $137.1 million | 21% |
| 3 | Chile | $83.4 million | 13% |
| 4 | Russia | $65.3 million | 9.9% |
| 5 | Peru | $27.7 million | 4.2% |
| 6 | Argentina | $20.2 million | 3.1% |
| 7 | Netherlands | $19.9 million | 3% |
| 8 | China | $13.2 million | 2% |
| 9 | Bolivia | $7.1 million | 1.1% |
| 10 | Italy | $6.2 million | 0.9% |
| 11 | Other Asia, nes | $6.1 million | 0.9% |
| 12 | Luxembourg | $5.9 million | 0.9% |
| 13 | Germany | $3.8 million | 0.6% |
| 14 | France | $3.7 million | 0.6% |
| 15 | Belgium | $3.2 million | 0.5% |

### Importers of oxides of boron; boric acids (HS 281000), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $197.7 million | 30% |
| 2 | Brazil | $72.1 million | 11% |
| 3 | South Korea | $36.6 million | 5.6% |
| 4 | Other Asia, nes | $32.6 million | 5% |
| 5 | Netherlands | $24 million | 3.7% |
| 6 | Germany | $23.2 million | 3.5% |
| 7 | Morocco | $21.7 million | 3.3% |
| 8 | United States | $17.8 million | 2.7% |
| 9 | France | $16 million | 2.4% |
| 10 | Canada | $14.9 million | 2.3% |
| 11 | Italy | $13.2 million | 2% |
| 12 | Mexico | $11.5 million | 1.8% |
| 13 | Japan | $10.8 million | 1.7% |
| 14 | India | $10.6 million | 1.6% |
| 15 | Ukraine | $9.9 million | 1.5% |

### Exporters of disodium tetraborate (refined borax), anhydrous (HS 284011), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | $51 million | 55% |
| 2 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $30.7 million | 33% |
| 3 | Netherlands | $3.9 million | 4.1% |
| 4 | Sweden | $1.9 million | 2% |
| 5 | Luxembourg | $1.7 million | 1.8% |
| 6 | China | $1.2 million | 1.3% |
| 7 | Argentina | $590,911 | 0.6% |
| 8 | Italy | $457,022 | 0.5% |
| 9 | Finland | $301,991 | 0.3% |
| 10 | South Africa | $277,845 | 0.3% |
| 11 | India | $274,578 | 0.3% |
| 12 | Germany | $255,134 | 0.3% |
| 13 | Russia | $186,373 | 0.2% |
| 14 | Belgium | $168,371 | 0.2% |
| 15 | Switzerland | $140,215 | 0.2% |

### Importers of disodium tetraborate (refined borax), anhydrous (HS 284011), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $27.3 million | 29% |
| 2 | Netherlands | $10.5 million | 11% |
| 3 | Mexico | $7.2 million | 7.7% |
| 4 | France | $5.5 million | 5.9% |
| 5 | United States | $4.8 million | 5.2% |
| 6 | India | $4.1 million | 4.4% |
| 7 | Japan | $3.9 million | 4.1% |
| 8 | Belgium | $3.8 million | 4.1% |
| 9 | Sweden | $3.3 million | 3.5% |
| 10 | Italy | $2.5 million | 2.7% |
| 11 | South Korea | $2.4 million | 2.6% |
| 12 | Norway | $1.9 million | 2% |
| 13 | Australia | $1.6 million | 1.7% |
| 14 | Saudi Arabia | $1.6 million | 1.7% |
| 15 | Germany | $1.1 million | 1.2% |

### Exporters of disodium tetraborate (refined borax), other than anhydrous (HS 284019), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $742.8 million | 64% |
| 2 | United States | $313.8 million | 27% |
| 3 | Luxembourg | $14.4 million | 1.2% |
| 4 | Netherlands | $14 million | 1.2% |
| 5 | Poland | $11.6 million | 1% |
| 6 | Guatemala | $9.3 million | 0.8% |
| 7 | China | $9 million | 0.8% |
| 8 | Argentina | $7.1 million | 0.6% |
| 9 | Malaysia | $5.7 million | 0.5% |
| 10 | France | $5.4 million | 0.5% |
| 11 | Sweden | $4 million | 0.3% |
| 12 | Finland | $3.7 million | 0.3% |
| 13 | Spain | $2.3 million | 0.2% |
| 14 | Italy | $2.1 million | 0.2% |
| 15 | Germany | $1.6 million | 0.1% |

### Importers of disodium tetraborate (refined borax), other than anhydrous (HS 284019), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $516.5 million | 45% |
| 2 | United States | $84.9 million | 7.3% |
| 3 | India | $77.1 million | 6.7% |
| 4 | Netherlands | $50.9 million | 4.4% |
| 5 | Germany | $42.7 million | 3.7% |
| 6 | Canada | $41.8 million | 3.6% |
| 7 | Malaysia | $30.6 million | 2.6% |
| 8 | Brazil | $28.2 million | 2.4% |
| 9 | Indonesia | $22.3 million | 1.9% |
| 10 | France | $22.2 million | 1.9% |
| 11 | Poland | $19.9 million | 1.7% |
| 12 | South Korea | $15.4 million | 1.3% |
| 13 | Spain | $15.4 million | 1.3% |
| 14 | Mexico | $14.3 million | 1.2% |
| 15 | Japan | $13.7 million | 1.2% |

### Exporters of borates, other than disodium tetraborate (HS 284020), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | $38.2 million | 21% |
| 2 | China | $31.2 million | 17% |
| 3 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $19.6 million | 11% |
| 4 | Italy | $16.2 million | 9% |
| 5 | Peru | $14.3 million | 7.9% |
| 6 | Argentina | $7.1 million | 3.9% |
| 7 | Netherlands | $6.9 million | 3.8% |
| 8 | India | $6.1 million | 3.4% |
| 9 | France | $6 million | 3.3% |
| 10 | Luxembourg | $6 million | 3.3% |
| 11 | Germany | $5.6 million | 3.1% |
| 12 | Australia | $5.4 million | 3% |
| 13 | Canada | $5 million | 2.7% |
| 14 | Belgium | $4.6 million | 2.6% |
| 15 | Japan | $1.1 million | 0.6% |

### Importers of borates, other than disodium tetraborate (HS 284020), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada | $21.5 million | 12% |
| 2 | United States | $16.6 million | 9.1% |
| 3 | Brazil | $15.3 million | 8.5% |
| 4 | Belgium | $10.7 million | 5.9% |
| 5 | Germany | $9.9 million | 5.5% |
| 6 | India | $9.3 million | 5.1% |
| 7 | Poland | $7.4 million | 4.1% |
| 8 | China | $6.7 million | 3.7% |
| 9 | Russia | $6.1 million | 3.4% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $5.5 million | 3% |
| 11 | Netherlands | $5.5 million | 3% |
| 12 | Australia | $5.2 million | 2.9% |
| 13 | Italy | $4.7 million | 2.6% |
| 14 | France | $3.6 million | 2% |
| 15 | South Africa | $3.1 million | 1.7% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Boron moves through customs in three steps, and each has its own line. Natural borates and concentrates (HS 252800) are the mined material. Refined borax (HS 284011 for the anhydrous form and HS 284019 for the others) and other borates (HS 284020) are the products of a chemical plant. Boric acid and boron oxide (HS 281000) are a further conversion. The first step is mining and concentrating, the second is refining, and the third is making acid. The five lines are the whole of what this site tracks. Customs lines from the BACI database mix grades within a code, so every share below is a share of the line, not of all boron trade.

In 2024 the largest exporter of natural borates was Turkey (Türkiye) with 56% of the world's $456.8 million of export value (CEPII BACI), followed by Bolivia (23%), Argentina (7.8%), Austria (3%) and Chile (2.8%). The largest buyers were China (24%), Brazil (21%), India (10%) and United States (5.9%). An export rank does not by itself show where borate is mined, because a country can sell on borates it bought abroad.

Refined borax has its own ranking. In 2024 the largest exporters of HS 284019 were Turkey (Türkiye) (64% of $1.2 billion), United States (27%), Luxembourg (1.2%), Netherlands (1.2%) and Poland (1%), and the largest importers were China (45%), United States (7.3%), India (6.7%), Netherlands (4.4%) and Germany (3.7%). In the anhydrous line (HS 284011, $93.3 million) the largest exporters were United States (55%) and Turkey (Türkiye) (33%), and the largest importer was China (29%). In other borates (HS 284020, $180.9 million) the largest exporters were United States (21%), China (17%), Turkey (Türkiye) (11%) and Italy (9%), and the largest importer was Canada (12%).

Boric acid and oxide (HS 281000, $656.6 million) is the third step. In 2024 the largest exporters were United States (34%), Turkey (Türkiye) (21%), Chile (13%), Russia (9.9%) and Peru (4.2%). On the buying side the largest importers were China (30%), Brazil (11%) and South Korea (5.6%).

USGS gives the United States view in its own units. In 2024 US exports were 655 thousand t of refined borax and 246 thousand t of boric acid, against imports of 150 thousand t of refined borax, 43 thousand t of boric acid, 28 thousand t of ulexite and 1 thousand t of colemanite, and USGS marks the country a net exporter in every year from 2021 to 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). For 2021 to 2024, Turkey supplied 90% and Bolivia 6% of US boron imports in all forms. For 2025 USGS ranks by tonnage, largest first, the countries that imported refined borates from the United States: China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Canada. It ranks the destinations of domestic boric acid shipments the same way: China, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The USGS tariff table, dated 31 December 2025, lists a normal trade relations rate of nothing on natural borates, 1.5% on boric acids, 0.3% on anhydrous refined borax and 0.1% on the other forms. USGS lists only that rate, so other duties may apply.


## What does boron cost?

### How it is priced

This page quotes no boron price, because this site found no free public price series for it. This site's registry records no exchange contract and no benchmark series for borates. The customs values on this page are not prices either: each line mixes grades, so a value per tonne taken from one would be an average of unlike cargoes.

What USGS does say is how the product is priced. Boron products are sold on their boric oxide content, which varies with the ore and the compound and with whether calcium and sodium are present (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). A buyer of colemanite, borax or boric acid is therefore not buying one thing at one price. The same chapter reports a derived figure for the United States: the average unit value of combined imports, cost, insurance and freight, which was $394 per t in 2021, $485 in 2022, $606 in 2023, $574 in 2024 and an estimated $540 in 2025. It is a customs average over a mix of refined borax, boric acid and ores, so a change in it can reflect a change in the mix as well as a change in the market, and it is not a quote a buyer could trade against.

The sources used for this page do not describe how contracts are written or how often prices are reset, so the page says nothing about contract terms.


## What moves the price of boron?

### Glass, ceramics, detergents and fertilizers

USGS says borates are used in more than 300 applications, but more than three-quarters of world consumption goes to ceramics, detergents, fertilizers and glass (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). USGS also says the glass and ceramics industries were the leading US users in 2025.

### Where the ore is and who mines it

Borate production is tied to a few regions. Under Law No. 2840 of 1983 Turkey reserved exploration and exploitation of boron salts to the state, and the work is done by Eti Maden, a state-owned company (IEA policy database; Eti Maden, etimine.com; Daily Sabah, 15 September 2024). In California USGS reports three borate producers in 2025 and withholds their output. The sources used here do not cover the operators in the other producing countries.

### Where the United States buys and sells

USGS reports that Turkey supplied 90% of US boron imports in all forms from 2021 to 2024, and Bolivia 6%. The same chapter says that China, which USGS describes as having low-grade boron reserves, was the largest destination for US refined borates in 2025. In the trade data above, the largest importer of refined borax is China (45%) and the largest importer of boric acid and oxide is China (30%).

### Lithium and boron from the same ground

Some boron supply has been tied to lithium projects, and the plans have moved. USGS reports that a developer based in Australia delayed construction of its Nevada project in July 2025 until March 2026, owing to an 80% fall in lithium prices from the 2022 level, and that the project had been expected to make about 170,000 tons a year of boric acid as a byproduct. The sources used here do not say whether construction began. USGS also reports that the European Commission designated the Jadar lithium-boron project in Serbia as a strategic project in June 2025, with an expected 286,000 tons a year of boric acid at full production. Rio Tinto's 2025 annual report (19 February 2026) refers to a November 2025 announcement that Jadar would be placed in care and maintenance. USGS ties the Nevada delay to the lithium price, so boron supply from such projects depends on the lithium market.

### Government critical-mineral lists

Boron is on the US 2025 critical minerals list, which was published on 7 November 2025 and added boron after public comment on the draft, USGS says. It is also in the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, as a critical raw material and, for metallurgy grade, as a strategic one. A listing is a government assessment of supply risk, not a finding of shortage, and this page does not claim one.

### Substitutes

USGS says other materials can replace boron in detergents, enamels, insulation and soaps. Sodium percarbonate can replace borates in detergents, some enamels can use phosphates, cellulose, foams and mineral wools can insulate, and fatty-acid salts can clean in soaps. The chapter does not say how much has been replaced, so substitution is a limit on demand in those uses but not a measured one.

### Trade rules

Tariffs on boron products are low in the United States: free for natural borates, 1.5% on boric acids and 0.3% or 0.1% on refined borax at the normal trade relations rates in the USGS table dated 31 December 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). USGS lists only that rate, so other duties may apply and the cost of a cargo can differ. USGS also lists a 14% depletion allowance on borax, which is a separate item from the tariff table.

## How is boron produced?

Boron is not found as a free element. USGS says it occurs bound to oxygen and other elements, as boric acid or as salts called borates, and that boron compounds, chiefly borates, are commercially important (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). Mining takes two forms in the United States. The leading producer works borate ore, containing kernite, tincal and ulexite, by open pit, and two other companies pump brines and extract the borates by solution mining. The Kramer deposit near Boron, California, is described in Rio Tinto's resource statement as a lens-shaped sedimentary sequence of sodium borates with interbedded claystone, laid down in a small non-marine basin with volcanic spring activity in the Miocene epoch, and surrounded by claystone containing ulexite and colemanite.

The minerals go to different products. At the leading US producer, USGS says kernite was used to make boric acid, tincal to make sodium borate (borax), and ulexite was a main ingredient of specialty glasses and ceramics. About 70% of Turkish deposits are colemanite, which USGS says is used mainly in heat-resistant glass. Eti Maden's product list shows the range of what a refining complex makes: borax pentahydrate and decahydrate, anhydrous borax, boric acid, boron oxide, zinc borate, calcined tincal and ground colemanite and ulexite (Eti Maden, etimine.com). The anhydrous borax falls under customs line HS 284011, the other borax under HS 284019, boric acid and boron oxide under HS 281000, and borates such as zinc borate under HS 284020, so the customs lines follow the plant.

The three steps are therefore mining or brine extraction, concentration and refining into borax and other borates, and conversion of part of that into boric acid. This is the reason the trade tables on this page are split into five lines: the leading countries differ from line to line. In 2024, for example, the second-largest exporter of natural borates was Bolivia, while the five largest exporters of boric acid and oxide were United States, Turkey (Türkiye), Chile, Russia and Peru. See [HS codes](/learn/hs-codes/) for how customs lines divide a product and [producing vs exporting vs processing](/learn/producing-vs-exporting-vs-processing/) for why the three leaders can differ.


## What is boron used for?

USGS does not publish boron consumption by end use for the United States, because production and consumption data are withheld. What it does publish is a world view: more than three-quarters of world consumption is used in ceramics, detergents, fertilizers and glass (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). In the United States, USGS says, the glass and ceramics industries remained the leading users in 2025, and boron is also a component in abrasives, cleaning products, insecticides, insulation and semiconductor production.

The mineral points to the product. At the leading US producer, kernite was used to make boric acid, tincal to make sodium borate and ulexite to make specialty glasses and ceramics, and in Turkey colemanite is used mainly in heat-resistant glass, according to USGS. Elemental boron, in contrast, is a metalloid with limited commercial applications, so boron demand means demand for borates. The strategic list in the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act names only metallurgy-grade boron.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

The chain has three physical stages and a different order of countries at each. The mines and brine operations sit where the deposits are: Turkey, where Eti Maden runs operations at Kırka, Emet, Bandırma and Bigadiç (Eti Maden, etimine.com), the Mojave Desert of California, and the Andean countries that USGS lists with borate production, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Refining and acid-making then happen in chemical plants, and the customs data show the largest export shares: in refined borax, Turkey (Türkiye) (64%) and United States (27%); in boric acid and oxide, United States (34%), Turkey (Türkiye) (21%) and Chile (13%). The end users USGS lists are glass, ceramics, detergents and fertilizers. The largest importer in each line is China (45%) for refined borax, China (30%) for boric acid and oxide and Canada (12%) for other borates.

Some links in the chain are concentrated. In Turkey the state reserves boron mining to itself, and a state company, Eti Maden, does the work (IEA policy database; Eti Maden, etimine.com). USGS reports that Turkey supplied 90% of US boron imports in all forms in 2021 to 2024, and that the United States was a net exporter in every year from 2021 to 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). On the trade side, the largest importer of refined borax was China (45%) and the second-largest exporter of other borates (HS 284020) was China (17%). USGS also describes two lithium projects that would make boric acid as a co-product. Rio Tinto's 2025 annual report (19 February 2026) says the Serbian one, Jadar, has been moved to care and maintenance, and USGS reports that construction of the Nevada one was delayed until March 2026. The sources used here report no boric acid production from either project.

Boron is on the US 2025 critical minerals list and in the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, as a critical raw material and, for metallurgy grade, as a strategic one. The [critical minerals](/critical-minerals/) hub lists what those lists contain and the [glossary entry](/glossary/critical-mineral/) defines the term. Related pages include [potash](/commodities/potash/) and [phosphate rock](/commodities/phosphate-rock/), which are fertilizer minerals, [fluorspar](/commodities/fluorspar/), and [lithium](/commodities/lithium/), which USGS links to boron through the Serbian and Nevada projects it describes.


## Key companies

- Eti Maden: state-owned company that extracts boron minerals and derivatives in Turkey and produces at the Bigadiç granular boron facility, Turkey
- Rio Tinto: owner of a borate open pit at Boron, California, listed in its Ore Reserves statement as Boron (US) at a 100% interest, Dual-listed company (London and Australia), listed (RIO)

## Timeline

- 1881: Borax is found near Furnace Creek in Death Valley. The National Park Service dates the find of borax near Furnace Creek Ranch, then called Greenland, to 1881; William T. Coleman built the Harmony Borax Works afterward. (https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/historyculture/harmony.htm)
- 1883: Harmony Borax Works starts processing ore. William T. Coleman began processing in late 1883 or early 1884; at full operation the plant employed 40 men and made three tons of borax a day, hauled by mule teams to the railhead at Mojave. (https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/historyculture/harmony.htm)
- 1888: Harmony Borax Works stops after five years. The plant closed when Coleman's finances collapsed, and its borax reserves later passed to Francis Marion Smith and the Pacific Coast Borax Company. (https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/historyculture/harmony.htm)
- 1890: Regional borax miners consolidate into Pacific Coast Borax. By 1890 several regional mining companies had mostly merged into the Pacific Coast Borax Company, the predecessor of U.S. Borax. (https://www.borax.com/working-with-borax/faq/u-s-borax-company-and-history)
- 1928: Death Valley Junction plant shuts as mining shifts toward Kramer. The National Park Service dates to 1928 both the shutdown of the Death Valley Junction concentrating plant and the discovery of an easily mined rasorite deposit near Kramer (later Boron), California, close to the company's new processing plant, after which borate mining moved away from the Death Valley area. Rio Tinto's 2025 annual report dates the Boron deposit's discovery to 1906 and the start of underground mining to 1925, which differs from the NPS account. (https://npshistory.com/publications/deva/hrs/section3e.htm)
- 1956: U.S. Borax is formed. The company's history page says in 1956 the Pacific Borax Company combined with the United States Potash Corporation, creating U.S. Borax. (https://www.borax.com/working-with-borax/faq/u-s-borax-company-and-history)
- 1983: Turkey's Law No. 2840 reserves boron mining to the state. The 1983 law governs boron salts and states that exploration and exploitation of boron salts are carried out by the State, which is the legal basis for the state company Eti Maden's role in the sector. (https://www.iea.org/policies/17868)
- 2024-05: The EU Critical Raw Materials Act lists boron. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, published on 3 May 2024, names boron among critical raw materials and, as metallurgy grade, among strategic raw materials, which carry 2030 targets for domestic extraction, processing and recycling. (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1252/oj)
- 2024-09: Eti Maden opens the Bigadiç granular boron facility. The plant in Balıkesir, opened on 14 September 2024, has an annual capacity of 35,000 t, according to the Daily Sabah, at a facility run by the state company Eti Maden. (https://www.dailysabah.com/business/energy/turkiye-inaugurates-new-boron-production-facility-in-balikesir/amp)
- 2025-06: The EU designates the Jadar lithium-boron project as strategic. USGS reports that in June 2025 the European Commission named the Serbian project among 60 strategic projects, with boric acid expected at 286,000 tons a year at full production. Rio Tinto's 2025 annual report (19 February 2026) refers to a November 2025 announcement that the project would be placed in care and maintenance. (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-boron.pdf)
- 2025-11: The United States adds boron to its critical minerals list. The final 2025 list names 60 minerals and adds ten, among them boron, after public comment on the draft (USGS news release). USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 gives the Federal Register citation, 90 FR 50494, and the publication date, 7 November 2025. (https://www.usgs.gov/news/science-snippet/interior-department-releases-final-2025-list-critical-minerals)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most boron

USGS publishes no production ranking. It withholds the United States figure to avoid disclosing company data and prints the world total as not applicable, because each country reports a different form, from crude ore to refined borates. USGS estimates Turkey at 1.5 million t of refined borates for 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026), but that figure cannot be ranked against the others.

### which country exports the most boron

It depends on the step. In 2024 the leading exporter by value was, for natural borates, Turkey (Türkiye) with 56%; for refined borax, Turkey (Türkiye) with 64%; and for boric acid and oxide, United States with 34% (CEPII BACI).

### who imports the most borax

The largest importer of refined borax (HS 284019) in 2024 was China, taking 45% of the world's $1.2 billion of import value (CEPII BACI). Next were United States (7.3%) and India (6.7%).

### is boron a critical mineral

Yes, on both main lists. The US 2025 list, published on 7 November 2025, includes boron among its 60 minerals (Federal Register, 90 FR 50494). The EU Critical Raw Materials Act of 2024 lists it as a critical raw material and, as metallurgy grade, a strategic one. A listing is a supply-risk assessment, not a claim of shortage.

### what is boron used for

Mostly in borates for glass, ceramics, detergents and fertilizers, which USGS says take more than three-quarters of world consumption. Borates are used in more than 300 applications, and in the United States glass and ceramics were the leading users in 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). Elemental boron has few uses on its own.

### what is the price of boron

This site found no free public price series for boron or borates, so it shows none. USGS reports one derived number: the average unit value of US imports, cost, insurance and freight, was $574 per t in 2024 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). It averages a mix of products and is not a market quote.

### does the united states produce boron

Yes. Three companies in southern California produced borates in 2025, and USGS says most boron products consumed in the United States were made domestically. USGS withholds the production figure, but the country exported 655 thousand t of refined borax and 246 thousand t of boric acid in 2024 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

### what are the main boron minerals

Colemanite, kernite, tincal and ulexite are the four main borate minerals, and USGS says they make up 90% of the borate minerals industry uses worldwide (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). USGS names kernite, tincal and ulexite as the minerals in the ores that California's leading producer mines, lists ulexite as a sodium borate and colemanite as a calcium borate, and says colemanite makes up about 70% of Turkey's deposits. The chemical formula Rio Tinto's resource notice gives for ulexite contains both sodium and calcium.

## Sources

- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-10-14. The text is written with AI assistance and checked against the cited data; figures are computed by scripts from the sources (https://commodityorigins.com/about/#how-ai-is-used). Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where does boron come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/boron/.