Where does indium come from?

Where indium is refined does not match where zinc, its host metal, is mined. In 2025 China refined 69% of the world's indium and mined 31.5% of its zinc (USGS MCS; zinc from the zinc tables). Peru, Australia, India and Mexico, the second to fifth zinc miners, together mined 32.7% of 2025 zinc (our arithmetic on USGS MCS), yet none appears in the indium refinery table. South Korea, Japan, France and Belgium refined 25.9% of the indium, and none is among the ten zinc miners USGS lists. USGS says indium is recovered at smelters, not mines, as shown in the by-products report. USGS calls the refinery table an estimate and says refinery data were limited or unavailable for most countries.

Indium is a very small market beside the zinc it comes from. The 1,100 tonnes refined in 2025 come to about $385 million to $429 million, depending on which of USGS's three 2025 price figures is used ($350, $370 or $390 per kilogram). That is 1.0% to 1.2% of the roughly $37.3 billion that 13 million tonnes of mined zinc comes to at the 2025 average LME cash price of $2,868 per tonne (our arithmetic on USGS MCS and the World Bank Pink Sheet). The zinc value is notional, since it prices contained mine zinc at the refined metal price, so the comparison gives scale only.

The countries that sell indium to the United States are not the ones that refine most of it. China, including Hong Kong, supplied 12% of US indium imports in 2021 to 2024, against 69% of 2025 world refining. South Korea, Japan and Canada supplied 58% of US imports and refined 26% of the 2025 total (USGS MCS; our arithmetic). The import years and the refining year differ, so this traces no shipment. USGS puts 2025 US consumption at 220 tonnes, equal to its import estimate and 20% of world refinery output (our arithmetic on USGS MCS); the United States refines none.

USGS reports indium as refinery production, not mine production. Its chapter says indium is most commonly recovered from sphalerite, the zinc-sulfide ore mineral, and that the indium content of the zinc deposits where it is recovered ranges from less than 1 part per million to 100 parts per million. USGS says recovery from other base-metal sulfides, such as chalcopyrite and stannite, was mostly not economic. USGS adds that indium was not recovered from ores in the United States in 2025.

In 2025 China refined 760 tonnes of indium, 69% of the 1,100 tonnes world total (USGS MCS). South Korea followed with 180 tonnes (16%) and Japan with 65 tonnes (5.9%). Canada refined 40 tonnes (3.6%) and France 21 tonnes (1.9%), with Belgium, Russia and Uzbekistan making up the rest of the table. The top three account for 91% and the top five for 97%. 8 producing countries are listed, plus the United States, which the table shows with no refinery production.

Four cautions. First, USGS rounds the world total, and the shares above divide each country's figure by that rounded total. USGS's text says China accounts for 70 percent of the world total, slightly different from the table's 69%, and does not explain the difference. Second, the listed countries add up to slightly less than the rounded total, a gap of 0.8%, and USGS does not say whether that is rounding or output from countries not listed. Third, USGS lists the same figure for every country in 2024 and 2025, so the +1% change in the world total comes from rounding, not from any one country. Fourth, USGS says refinery data were limited or unavailable for most countries, and that its estimates were derived from trade data, capacity and, or, changes in related lead and zinc smelter production. The table is an informed estimate of where refining happens, not a measured count.

USGS also prints a separate column of estimated refinery capacity. Capacity is a different measure from production, and this page does not mix the two or reproduce it. There is no reserves table either: the USGS chapter gives no reserves figure for indium, only a description of resources, and this site does not estimate one. See reserves versus resources.

This page has no trade table, and that is deliberate. Customs data do not report indium on a line of its own at the international level. It shares the six-digit Harmonized System subheading 8112.92, covering unwrought metal, waste and scrap, and powders, with other minor metals. In the US tariff schedule that subheading is split into separate lines for gallium, indium, niobium, vanadium and germanium, plus waste and scrap (USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule). A table on the shared six-digit code would add several metals together and could not say what was indium. See HS codes.

What can be said comes from USGS, and it describes the United States only. USGS lists unwrought indium, including powders, under US tariff item 8112.92.3000, with a normal trade relations rate of free as of 31 December 2025. It reports no US refinery production from 2021 to 2025, estimated 2025 consumption of refined indium of 220 tons (set equal to the estimated import quantity), no export data, net import reliance of 100 percent, and no government stockpile. For 2021 to 2024 USGS gives the sources of US imports as South Korea 25 percent, Japan 22 percent, China (including Hong Kong) 12 percent, Canada 11 percent and other countries 30 percent. Those shares describe US imports only and say nothing about world trade.

In a passage about China's export restrictions, USGS reports that Asian Metal said exports of unwrought indium declined by 72 percent year over year from September 2024 to September 2025. USGS places this next to its statement that China's Ministry of Commerce subjected several critical minerals, including indium, to new export restrictions in February 2025, and does not say that one caused the other. The license rules are described under the drivers.

This page shows no indium price series, because this site has no free public series for it and does not hold a license to publish a commercial one, and it lists no exchange benchmark for indium. USGS draws its indium prices from Argus Media group, Argus Non-Ferrous Markets: metal of 99.99 percent minimum purity, quoted free on board at a US warehouse and, separately, in Rotterdam with duties unpaid, in dollars per kilogram. Fastmarkets launched on 1 May 2026 a US assessment of 99.99 percent indium, delivered duty paid, in dollars per kilogram, saying it supports localised US pricing in response to US tariffs, export controls and increased US government funding, and complements its existing European and Chinese benchmarks.

Each quote is narrow: one purity, one delivery point, one set of duty terms.

USGS gives annual averages, and its 2025 figures disagree. Its table shows the 2025 estimated US warehouse average at $370 per kilogram and Rotterdam at $380, against $351 and $311 for 2024. Its text puts the 2025 US warehouse average at $390 per kilogram, 11 percent above 2024, with the Argus price starting the year at $383 and peaking in June at $408. The chapter's opening paragraph gives a third figure, about $350,000 per ton, from a public spot-price website consulted on 30 September 2025. This page does not choose between them. They are USGS estimates for 2025, not a current price, and naming a company here is not investment advice.

USGS says indium is most commonly recovered from sphalerite, so supply depends on zinc ore being processed and on smelters choosing to recover the indium in it. Teck says indium is produced as a co-product of zinc smelting at its integrated refinery in Trail, British Columbia, and Nyrstar says its Auby zinc smelter in France has an indium refinery commissioned in May 2012.

USGS reports that indium tin oxide (ITO) production continued to account for most global indium consumption, with ITO thin films used mainly for electrical conduction in flat-panel displays, most commonly liquid crystal displays. USGS's indium information page adds that the amount of indium consumed is largely a function of worldwide LCD production.

USGS reports that fifth-generation (5G) technologies continued to increase demand for indium, through indium phosphide substrates in fibre-optic networks. It also says artificial intelligence was expected to increase demand for specialized chip materials, including indium phosphide, and that some data-centre electrical components use indium-based solder alloys. These are USGS statements, not a forecast by this page.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs listed indium phosphide, trimethylindium, triethylindium and the technology to produce them as needing an export license from 4 February 2025. The announcement text does not list indium metal, and Reuters said in June 2026 that the metal was still off the list while customs scrutiny had tightened for some buyers.

USGS says indium is most commonly recovered from ITO scrap in Japan and the Republic of Korea, and that data on how much was recovered were not available. It lists substitutes for ITO coatings, including antimony tin oxide, carbon nanotubes, PEDOT, nanowires and graphene, and says hafnium can replace indium in nuclear reactor control rod alloys.

Indium is on the 2025 US list of critical minerals, which the Interior Department and USGS published on 6 November 2025 with 60 minerals; the list describes indium as used in flat-panel displays and touchscreens. As of 6 October 2026 it is not among the 34 materials on the European Commission's critical raw materials page (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252). A listing is a government assessment, and this page does not claim a shortage.

Indium is not mined and processed on its own; USGS says it is most commonly recovered from sphalerite in zinc deposits. This page does not describe the refining steps, because they differ by plant and a general account could be wrong for any given smelter.

What can be said is what the refined metal looks like. As of October 2026, Teck lists indium metal of 99.995 percent minimum purity, sold as ingots of 1, 3 and 10 kilograms. Korea Zinc lists indium of 99.99 percent or more in 5 kilogram units. Nyrstar says the indium refinery at Auby, commissioned in May 2012, produces metal of 99.998 percent. Los Alamos National Laboratory describes indium as a soft, silvery-white metal that can be cut with a knife and gives its melting point as 429.7485 kelvin, about 157 degrees Celsius.

Downstream, USGS says several US companies made alloys, compounds, high-purity metal and solders from imported indium metal in 2025.

USGS publishes no world split of indium by end use and says no end-use data were readily available, so this page invents none. What the chapter does say is that ITO accounted for most global consumption. ITO is indium tin oxide, a transparent, electrically conductive thin-film coating, used mainly in flat-panel displays and most commonly liquid crystal displays.

USGS lists the other end uses as alloys and solders, compounds, electrical components and semiconductors, and research. In its 2025 events section it names indium phosphide substrates for 5G fibre-optic networks, indium phosphide lasers, receivers, photodetectors and laser diodes for optical communications, an ITO coating on data-centre fibres and cables, and indium-based solder in some data-centre components.

USGS's information page records that the first large-scale application was as a coating for bearings in high-performance aircraft engines during World War II, and that by 1992 the thin-film application had become the largest end use.

The chain runs from zinc ore to a zinc smelter, where indium is recovered, to refined metal, and from there to makers of ITO coatings, solders, alloys, compounds and semiconductor materials. Because indium is recovered at plants that process zinc, supply is tied to where those plants are, and the refinery table is concentrated: 91% of output comes from three countries and China alone is credited with 69%. See zinc, tin (the other element in ITO) and gallium.

The United States added indium to its final 2025 critical minerals list on 6 November 2025 (USGS), so it is a critical mineral there; the glossary entry defines the term. As of 6 October 2026 the European Commission's critical raw materials page does not list it. What the data show is that refining is concentrated in one country, no reserves figure is stated, and, per the sources dated up to June 2026, that country licenses exports of some indium compounds.

The February 2025 announcement (4 February, covering items related to tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium) took effect the day it was issued. For indium it lists indium phosphide, trimethylindium, triethylindium and production technology and data, and requires exporters to apply to the commerce department of the State Council for a license. A Pillsbury law-firm tracker of 13 November 2025 listed it as still valid and not among the announcements China suspended from 7 November 2025. Reuters reported on 19 June 2026 that two buyers saw closer customs scrutiny of indium metal purchases: one European buyer said it was asked for the first time in 2026 to disclose end users and their locations, and a North American buyer said approvals had stretched from one day to several. Reuters said the tightening was not uniform and that it had identified no blocked shipment (the cited copy is a machine translation hosted on Boursorama). Secondary sources say China's 2026 dual-use catalog, in force from 1 January 2026, adds further indium-related items; this page has not checked the catalog text. This page has not confirmed any change after June 2026 and makes no prediction.