Where does fluorspar come from?

How much of a country's fluorspar crosses a border varies enormously. In 2024, exports of the two fluorspar lines were equal to 85% of Mongolia's mine output, 78% of South Africa's, 31% of Mexico's and 4% of China's (tonnes of product from CEPII BACI against USGS MCS 2026 mine output, which counts all grades together, so the ratios are approximate). China also runs the other way. It exported 158,333 tonnes of the lower-grade line (HS 252921) in 2024 and imported 1,324,630 tonnes, 8.4 times as much and equal to 22% of its own mine output (our arithmetic on CEPII BACI and USGS).

The biggest acid-grade corridor ends at one buyer. In 2024 Mexico's sales to the United States were worth $116.8 million, 22% of world acid-grade trade (HS 252922) and the largest bilateral flow (CEPII BACI), and Mexico supplied 81% of United States acid-grade imports, above the 65% benchmark in the supplier exposure report. The US declared $624 per tonne on those imports, the highest among the four largest importers, against $426 to $578 for Italy, India and Germany (our arithmetic on CEPII BACI value and net weight).

Fluorspar reserves have grown while the world kept mining. USGS's reserves rose 27%, from 260 million tonnes in its 2023 summary to 330 million tonnes, even though 29.8 million tonnes were mined in 2023 to 2025 (USGS MCS; our arithmetic). Against everything mined since 1913, though, the site's how much is left series counts 53% of the combined total of past output and 2025 reserves as already mined. At 2025 output the world's reserves cover 33 years; in the four-country table on country reserve life, cover runs from 18 years for China to 100 for South Africa.

In 2025 China mined 6 million tonnes of fluorspar, 60% of the world's 10 million tonnes (USGS MCS). Mongolia (15%) and Mexico (15%) came next, then South Africa (4.1%) and Vietnam (1.6%). The top five account for 96% of output, and 12 countries are listed. Reserves stand at 330 million tonnes: China holds 33%, Mexico 21%, South Africa 12% and Mongolia 10% (USGS MCS).

Fluorspar is the mineral fluorite, calcium fluoride, and it is sold in grades that are not interchangeable. Acid grade is more than 97 percent calcium fluoride and is the raw material for hydrofluoric acid. By common industry convention, ceramic grade, roughly 85 to 95 percent, goes into glass and enamels, and metallurgical grade, typically 60 to 85 percent, is a steelmaking flux. The mine production table counts all grades together.

Mining share and export share diverge sharply. China mines 60% of the world's fluorspar but is only the third-largest exporter of acid grade by value, with 9.5%, behind Mexico (37%) and South Africa (30%), which mine far less. Its recorded exports are small next to its output, so most of what it mines is evidently used at home. USGS describes Chinese supply as constrained by rectification measures on mining, including suspensions for safety inspections, and reports that China's imports rose steeply in the first half of 2025, mostly from Mongolia. The trade data fit that picture on the lower-grade line: in 2024 Mongolia was the largest exporter of fluorspar at 97 percent calcium fluoride or less (38% of value) and China by far the largest importer (42%).

World output changed -3% on the previous year, according to USGS estimates that were revised for several countries. Between 2024 and 2025 Mongolia's output rose and South Africa's fell, while China's was reported unchanged.

Mexico was the largest exporter of acid-grade fluorspar (HS 252922) in 2024 with 37% of world export value, ahead of South Africa (30%) and China (9.5%), on world trade of $523.2 million (CEPII BACI). United States was the largest importer with 28%, followed by Italy (18%), India (14%) and Germany (9.9%).

The trade is split across two customs lines, and the split matters. Acid-grade fluorspar (HS 252922, more than 97 percent calcium fluoride) goes to hydrofluoric acid and aluminum fluoride plants. The lower-grade line (HS 252921) was worth $451.9 million in 2024, with Mongolia (38%), China (20%) and Mexico (11%) leading exports and China (42%) and Indonesia (6.5%) leading imports. By weight the lower-grade line is the larger flow, by value the smaller, because a tonne of acid grade is worth considerably more. See HS codes.

The importers are the countries that run the chemical plants, which is why this map looks nothing like the mining map. USGS reports that the United States has not had significant fluorspar mine production since 1995, was fully net import reliant apart from sales from stockpiles, and makes anhydrous hydrofluoric acid in Louisiana and Texas. Its imports came mainly from Mexico in 2021 to 2024, followed by Vietnam, China and South Africa. The gap is the one described in producing, exporting and processing.

Export policy has shaped this trade before. China applied export duties and quotas to fluorspar among other raw materials until a WTO dispute brought by the United States, the European Union and Mexico ended with China reporting that it had removed them from the start of 2013.

This page quotes no fluorspar price, because there is no free public series. Prices are assessed by private reporting agencies, which sell them by subscription. Fastmarkets, for example, publishes a monthly assessment of acid-grade fluorspar at 97 percent calcium fluoride delivered to Rotterdam as wet filtercake, and metallurgical grade is assessed separately. No exchange contract is tracked here, so there is no public futures price to anchor on. Publishing a number would require a license this site does not hold.

The closest free evidence is the average unit value of United States imports, which USGS publishes by grade. It is a customs value including freight, not a market assessment, but it shows that acid grade is worth more per tonne than metallurgical grade in every year from 2021 to 2025, and that both were higher in 2025 than in 2021.

How the market works can be described without a number. Acid-grade fluorspar goes to a limited number of hydrofluoric acid and aluminum fluoride producers, and the free sources this site uses publish no benchmark price for it, so there is no screen price to quote. Because fluorochemical producers need a steady, specified feedstock, some of them, Orbia among them, own mines, which keeps part of the market out of any public benchmark.

Substitution limits the lower grade. USGS lists aluminum smelting dross, borax, calcium chloride, iron oxides, manganese ore, silica sand and titanium dioxide as materials that have been used in place of fluorspar as a flux, so metallurgical grade competes with alternatives that acid grade does not face. For hydrofluoric acid and aluminum fluoride, fluorosilicic acid from phosphate rock is the only substitute USGS names.

China mines most of the world's fluorspar and uses most of it, so its inspection and rectification campaigns on mines, and the way its own chemical industry draws on supply, move the whole market. USGS ties a recent jump in Chinese imports, largely from Mongolia, to constrained domestic supply.

Acid-grade fluorspar is by far the leading input to hydrofluoric acid, which feeds virtually all fluorine-bearing chemicals, notably refrigerants and fluoropolymers. Demand therefore follows air conditioning, refrigeration and the plastics and coatings that use fluorine, and the phase-down of high-warming refrigerants under the 2016 Kigali Amendment reshapes the product mix.

Primary aluminum producers use fluoride chemicals made from hydrofluoric acid, such as aluminum fluoride and cryolite, in their smelting process, and they recycle part of what they consume. Aluminum output, covered on the aluminum page, is a steady source of acid-grade demand.

Hydrofluoric acid is a step in making the lithium salt used in most lithium-ion electrolytes and the fluoropolymer binder used in many cathodes, and it is also used to purify graphite and to clean and etch semiconductors. This use ties fluorspar to the same demand story as lithium and graphite.

Metallurgical grade is a steelmaking flux, and it is the part of the market most exposed to substitution, so demand for the lower grade follows steel output and the cost of alternatives. See steel.

USGS reports a Canadian mine idled in 2022 restarting production in 2025, a new Chinese mine in Xinjiang opening, and further mines in development or reopening in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Mongolia, Mozambique and the United States.

USGS estimates that world phosphate rock reserves contain fluorine equal to a quantity of fluorspar far larger than the fluorspar reserves above. Recovery as fluorosilicic acid is limited to a few plants, but it is the one structural alternative to mined fluorspar. See phosphate rock.

Fluorspar is mined from open pits and underground workings. It occurs with other minerals, so the ore is not sold as it comes out: it is crushed, ground and upgraded, commonly by froth flotation, which floats the fluorite away from the minerals it is mixed with. The result is a concentrate sold by grade: acid grade at more than 97 percent calcium fluoride, which is often shipped wet as filtercake or dried, and lower grades that are less thoroughly cleaned.

At the chemical plant, acid-grade fluorspar is heated with sulfuric acid in a kiln to produce hydrogen fluoride gas and a calcium sulfate by-product. The gas is sold as anhydrous hydrogen fluoride or dissolved in water as hydrofluoric acid. From there the chain branches. Hydrofluoric acid is reacted into fluorocarbon refrigerants and fluoropolymers, into aluminum fluoride for smelters, and into the fluorides used in uranium processing and in battery electrolyte.

Recovered fluorine is a second route. The United States Department of Energy sells aqueous hydrofluoric acid made as a by-product of converting depleted uranium hexafluoride, and one company in North Carolina makes it from fluorosilicic acid recovered at phosphoric acid plants. Synthetic fluorspar can be made from some industrial wastes, although USGS notes that impurities limit its use.

Quantities on this page are tonnes of fluorspar as reported by USGS. A tonne of metallurgical grade contains less calcium fluoride than a tonne of acid grade, so tonnage comparisons between grades need care.

The large majority of acid-grade fluorspar becomes hydrofluoric acid. USGS calls that by far the leading use, and describes aqueous hydrofluoric acid as the primary feedstock for virtually all fluorine-bearing chemicals. The biggest families are refrigerants and fluoropolymers, the chemical-resistant plastics used in seals, linings and non-stick coatings.

Metals are the other large use. Hydrofluoric acid is the source of the aluminum fluoride and cryolite that smelters use in the aluminum process, and it is used in processing uranium for nuclear fuel. Metallurgical-grade fluorspar goes directly into steelmaking as a flux, and is also used in iron and steel casting and in welding rod coatings.

Smaller uses include cement, enamels and glass. Hydrofluoric acid itself is a catalyst in petrochemicals and is used for cleaning and etching in semiconductor manufacturing.

The battery use is the one drawing attention. Hydrofluoric acid goes into the lithium salt used in most lithium-ion electrolytes, into the fluoropolymer binder in some cathodes, and into purifying graphite for anodes. It is not among the leading uses USGS names.

The chain runs mine, concentrator, hydrofluoric acid plant, fluorochemical or aluminum fluoride plant. Most fluorspar is converted into hydrofluoric acid close to its customers, so trade in fluorspar follows chemical and aluminum capacity rather than the mines.

The concentration that matters is therefore in the supply of acid-grade fluorspar to those plants, not in the mine count alone. Mexico (37%) and South Africa (30%) lead acid-grade exports, and a country such as the United States with no significant mine production relies on imports for its hydrofluoric acid output. China, the largest miner, appears to use most of its own output and has been drawing in more fluorspar from abroad, mostly from Mongolia, so a disruption in its mines can alter the balance for everyone else.

This is why fluorspar sits on both the United States 2025 list of critical minerals and the European Union list of critical raw materials adopted in 2024, which names fluorspar explicitly. The lists are about vulnerability and dependence, not rarity in the ground. See critical minerals for the lists and critical mineral for the definition. This page does not claim a current shortage, and USGS does not report one: reserves of 330 million tonnes are large against annual mining of 10 million tonnes.

The exposure is that mines, acid plants and customers sit in different jurisdictions, that two countries supply most of the acid-grade trade, and that Chinese mining policy and demand can shift the market with little warning. USGS names fluorosilicic acid, recovered from phosphate rock processing, as a partial substitute in some uses, and some producers, Orbia among them, own mines.