Where does rhodium come from?

Rhodium has no production ranking, so the exporters in the customs data cannot be matched against miners one to one. USGS names five countries as platinum and palladium miners for 2025: South Africa, Russia, Zimbabwe, Canada and the United States (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). Three of them, South Africa, United States and Russia, are among the seven largest exporters of unwrought rhodium in 2024. Canada and Zimbabwe are not in this site's table of the 15 largest. The second to fourth exporters, United Kingdom (15%), Germany (12%) and Belgium (11%), are not among the five. With Italy (6%), which USGS also does not name as a miner, they hold about 43% of export value (our arithmetic on the unrounded shares).

Trade balances differ by country. Japan imported $983.3 million and exported $157.9 million, about six times as much bought as sold, while Belgium exported $817.2 million and imported $68.9 million, about twelve times as much sold as bought. Germany was close to balance, at $862.6 million exported and $928.3 million imported.

The comparison with platinum and palladium comes from USGS, because this site's trade table covers the rhodium line only. USGS reports 2024 US imports of 14,500 kg of rhodium, 70,500 kg of platinum and 68,300 kg of palladium, at 2024 average prices of $4,660.44, $960.70 and $994.90 per troy ounce. Multiplying weight by price gives roughly $2.2 billion for each of the three, so rhodium carries the same import bill as platinum at about a fifth of the weight (calculated here, applying annual average prices to metal content).

This page has no production ranking for rhodium, and the reason sits in the USGS table itself. In the platinum-group metals chapter of the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, the world mine production table has columns for palladium and platinum only, and the United States statistics list mine production for those two metals alone (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). Rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium have no production columns. They are not mined as separate products. The six platinum-group elements occur together in nature, pass through the same concentrator and smelter, and are separated from one another in the last refining stage, where each is brought to a purity above 99.99% (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). A country ranking of rhodium output would have to be an estimate built on assumed metal ratios, and this page makes none.

For the two metals USGS does rank, it estimates 2025 mine production of platinum at 120,000 kg in South Africa, 20,000 kg in Russia, 18,000 kg in Zimbabwe, 5,000 kg in Canada and 1,800 kg in the United States, against a rounded world total of 170,000 kg. For palladium the estimates are 84,000 kg in Russia, 70,000 kg in South Africa, 16,000 kg in Canada, 15,000 kg in Zimbabwe and 6,200 kg in the United States, against 190,000 kg (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). These are platinum and palladium figures and are not rhodium output. The mix of metals differs by deposit: the 2017 USGS chapter says the deposits in South Africa and Zimbabwe carry a higher share of platinum than any other major deposit, and those of the Norilsk-Talnakh area in Russia a higher share of palladium. The same chapter, whose resource figures date from 2012, says South Africa was the leading producer of platinum and rhodium and Russia of palladium (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017).

One company report shows how small the rhodium slice is. Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats), which runs mines and processing plants in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Canada, reported refined and saleable output of 1,186 thousand troy ounces of platinum, 844 thousand of palladium and 147 thousand of rhodium for the nine months ended 31 March 2025 (Implats production report, period ended 31 March 2025, the only Implats report opened for this page). At 31.1035 grams per troy ounce, 147 thousand troy ounces is about 4,570 kg, and it equals 12% of the platinum figure and 17% of the palladium figure (calculated here). It is one company over one nine-month period, and it is no basis for estimating world output.

The reserve table covers platinum-group metals together. USGS lists platinum-group reserves of 63,000,000 kg for South Africa, 11,000,000 kg for Russia (a figure that leaves out the C2 reserve category, which USGS describes as deposits indicated but not being developed), 1,300,000 kg for Zimbabwe, 590,000 kg for the United States and 310,000 kg for Canada, in a world total of more than 76,000,000 kg (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). The 2017 chapter says 69% of identified platinum-group resources are in reef-type deposits, which are thin, sheet-like layers of ore, and that 81% of those are in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017).

With production unranked, the origin picture here is built from exports. An export table shows where metal crossed a border, which is not always where it was mined, and the producing vs exporting vs processing explainer sets out why those three can differ. The next section reads the table against the mining countries.

The line this site tracks is unwrought rhodium and rhodium powder (HS 711031). In 2024 the world's exports of it were worth $7.5 billion (CEPII BACI). CEPII BACI merges the exporter's and the importer's declarations of each flow into one reconciled value (CEPII BACI documentation), so the world import value, $7.5 billion, matches the export value. A share below is a share of the line's value, not of all rhodium trade, because other forms of rhodium travel under customs lines this site does not track. See HS codes for how customs lines divide a product.

The largest exporters by value were South Africa (36%), United Kingdom (15%), Germany (12%), Belgium (11%), United States (10%), Italy (6%) and Russia (4.2%), followed by Japan (2.1%), India (1.1%) and South Korea (1.1%). The largest importers were United States (28%), Japan (13%), Hong Kong (13%), Germany (12%), United Kingdom (9.3%), China (6.8%), South Korea (4.2%) and Italy (4%).

Most countries sit on both sides of the table, and the sizes differ. Japan imported $983.3 million and exported $157.9 million. Belgium exported $817.2 million and imported $68.9 million. Germany exported $862.6 million and imported $928.3 million. United Kingdom exported $1.1 billion and imported $699.1 million, United States exported $777.2 million and imported $2.1 billion, and South Korea exported $79.6 million and imported $312.3 million. South Africa and Russia do not appear among the 15 largest importers, so each bought less than $11.5 million, the 15th-largest import figure.

USGS gives the United States view in kilograms of platinum-group-metal content. US imports of rhodium were 16,500 kg in 2021, 13,200 kg in 2022, 12,100 kg in 2023, 14,500 kg in 2024 and an estimated 14,000 kg in 2025, and exports were 1,350 kg, 717 kg, 453 kg, 766 kg and an estimated 340 kg (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). USGS prints no import-source breakdown for rhodium, only for platinum and palladium, and no apparent consumption or net import reliance figure for rhodium. It says all unwrought and semimanufactured platinum-group metals enter the United States duty free at the normal trade relations rate. The two sources do not line up on US exports, and they count different things: USGS reports platinum-group-metal content under a set of US customs codes that spans several lines of the platinum-group chapter, while the BACI figure covers the single line HS 711031. USGS reports 766 kg of rhodium exported in 2024, while the table here puts the United States among the five largest exporters, with $777.2 million of exports and 4,846 kg of net weight (CEPII BACI, as carried in this site's data). This page does not reconcile the two, and it makes no claim about which is closer to the physical flow.

A last caution concerns weight. CEPII BACI reports quantities in metric tons (CEPII BACI documentation), and the world net weight of this line in 2024 comes to 50,655 kg in this site's table. The Royal Society of Chemistry's element page gives world production of rhodium as about 30 tonnes a year, without a year attached. The two numbers are on different bases: a tonne of metal that crosses two borders is counted twice in trade, and recycled metal may also cross borders under the same customs line, so trade weight cannot be read as output.

This page quotes no market price series for rhodium, because this site found no free public price series for it. This site's registry records no exchange contract and no benchmark series. Dealer prices are not quoted here.

The one published price this page uses is USGS's annual average. USGS prints it as Engelhard unfabricated metal average annual prices, sourced to S&P Global Platts Metals Week. In dollars per troy ounce the figures are $20,254.10 for 2021, $15,585.00 for 2022, $6,660.58 for 2023, $4,660.44 for 2024 and an estimated $5,800 for 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). Between the 2021 and 2024 averages rhodium fell 77%, palladium 59% and platinum 12% (calculated here from the USGS table). Per kilogram, the 2024 average is about $149,800 (calculated at 31.1035 grams per troy ounce). USGS says the estimated 2025 average is 24% above 2024. For the group of metals it attributes the 2025 price increases to lower production and higher demand, and for rhodium it names demand from the hard disk and chemical catalyst industries (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

The customs table gives a cross-check, not a price. Dividing the 2024 world export value of $7.5 billion by the line's net weight in this site's table, given in the trade notes, gives about $148,100 per kg, or about $4,605 per troy ounce (calculated from CEPII BACI values and weights). That sits within 1.2% of the USGS 2024 average. A customs average mixes grades and dates, and it divides a reconciled value by a reconciled weight, so it is an approximation and not a price a buyer could trade against.

The sources used here say little about contracts. An Implats production report for the period ended 31 March 2025 says its customers took contractual deliveries of platinum-group metals plus additional spot requests, which shows both kinds of sale exist for the group. It gives no terms and says nothing specific to rhodium, so this page describes no contract terms or reset schedule.

The Royal Society of Chemistry's element page says about 80% of rhodium goes into car catalytic converters, where it reduces nitrogen oxides in exhaust gas; the page gives no year. USGS dates the spread of converters to the 1970s in the United States, followed by the European Union and Japan (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). Emission rules and vehicle output therefore bear on demand. The timeline below records US rules and converter dates; the sources opened do not say when rhodium entered the converters.

Rhodium is separated from the same concentrate as platinum and palladium (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017), so rhodium from mines depends on platinum and palladium operations. USGS estimates South African platinum-group output fell 9% in 2025, owing to lower palladium prices, the cost of deep-level mining and electricity disruptions (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). That statement covers the group of metals. This page has no rhodium-specific South African figure.

Recovery from end-of-life catalytic converters, jewelry and electronics supplies a share of rhodium. USGS puts it at about 27% of total rhodium supply in 2011, citing a 2012 source, and says recycling volumes rise with price (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). That is the only rhodium recycling share found in the sources opened for this page, and it is old. For 2025 USGS gives scrap recovery for platinum and palladium only: about 140,000 kg together (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

USGS says problems at a refinery in Rustenburg, South Africa, in 1989 decreased the world supply of rhodium (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). In the quarter ended 31 March 2025, Implats reported that furnace maintenance at its South African smelters constrained processing, and refined six-element output at its Rustenburg operation fell 14%, yet group refined and saleable rhodium rose 9% to 45 thousand troy ounces, about 1,400 kg (Implats production report, period ended 31 March 2025).

Chemical plants use rhodium catalysts in nitric acid and acetic acid production, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, and USGS says the chemical industry uses platinum or a platinum-rhodium alloy to make nitric oxide, a raw material for nitric acid (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). Johnson Matthey's 2026 market report release also names platinum-rhodium alloys in glass making. USGS says demand from hard disk and chemical catalyst makers helped lift the estimated 2025 rhodium price (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

Platinum-group production needs power and water, which USGS says are in short supply in southern Africa, and it records that South Africa's mining industry briefly shut almost all operations in January 2008 because the power supply was unpredictable (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). USGS also lists electricity disruptions among the reasons for the estimated 9% fall in South African output in 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

USGS's final 2025 US critical minerals list, released in November 2025, names 60 minerals and includes rhodium. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act of 2024 lists platinum group metals, without naming rhodium, in both its strategic and its critical raw materials annexes. The sources opened for this page do not say whether a listing reflects a shortage.

Rhodium reaches the market through a chain of platinum-group steps, and USGS describes them. Ore is crushed and ground, and the platinum-group minerals are concentrated by froth flotation, a process in which minerals stick to air bubbles and float off. The concentrate is dried, then melted in an electric arc furnace, at temperatures that can pass 1,500 degrees Celsius, where it separates into a metal-bearing matte and a waste slag. Converters blow air through the matte to remove iron and sulfur, a base-metals refinery separates the base metals from the platinum-group metals, and the last stage uses solvent extraction, precipitation and dissolution in chloride solutions to separate the six metals from each other at a purity above 99.99%. They leave as ingots, grains or a fine powder called sponge (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). See the glossary on concentrate and refining.

USGS sorts identified platinum-group-element resources into three deposit types: reef-type (69%), contact-type (20%) and conduit-type (11%), as of 2012. It describes the Bushveld Complex's Merensky Reef and UG2 Chromitite, both reef-type, as sheet-like orebodies that have been mined from the surface down to about 2 km in some regions, and says the chromium in UG2 ore makes smelting harder because it needs especially high temperatures. Its examples of the other two types are the Platreef in South Africa (contact-type) and the Norilsk-Talnakh area of Russia (conduit-type) (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017). The Implats report shows the same stages in its own tables, which count tonnes milled and metal in concentrate, metal in matte and refined and saleable metal, and give refined rhodium its own line.

Some refiners also recycle: Heraeus Precious Metals says it is among the biggest refiners and recyclers of platinum-group metals (Heraeus Precious Metals, About page, undated), and Johnson Matthey describes a new refinery at Royston, in the United Kingdom, in which evaluation, smelting and chemical leaching are done at Brimsdown, and final chemical separation of platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium follows at Royston (Johnson Matthey, 3CR page, undated). Umicore says its precious metals refining unit produces platinum, palladium and rhodium as a powder called sponge, with a minimum purity of 99.95% (Umicore, precious metals page, undated).

The Royal Society of Chemistry's element page says about 80% of rhodium goes into car catalytic converters, where it helps reduce nitrogen oxides in exhaust gas. The page gives no year, and this site found no dated rhodium demand split in the free sources it opened. The same page lists chemical catalysts, for nitric acid and acetic acid, and smaller uses in crucibles, thermocouples, reflectors and electrical contacts. USGS's 2025 critical minerals release lists rhodium uses in car converters, electrical parts and chemical catalysis.

Two other uses are dated. USGS's 2026 summary links part of the estimated 2025 price rise for rhodium to demand from the hard disk and chemical catalyst industries (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026), and Johnson Matthey's PGM market report release of 14 May 2026 names platinum-rhodium alloys in glass making, in specialist glass fiber. USGS also says that for some industrial uses one platinum-group metal can stand in for another, with losses in efficiency, so a use is not locked to rhodium. The summary does not say how much substitution takes place.

The chain has three kinds of place. Mines and concentrators sit where the ore is, chiefly in South Africa and Russia, with Zimbabwe, Canada and the United States producing less platinum and palladium (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 estimates). Smelters and base-metal refineries follow, and producers can run their own, as Implats does in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Precious-metal refiners then separate the six metals, and some of them take scrap as well as concentrate.

The refiners named in this page's sources are Johnson Matthey in the United Kingdom, Heraeus Precious Metals in Hanau, Germany, and Umicore, whose Precious Metals Refining unit operates at Hoboken (company pages: Johnson Matthey and Heraeus are in the company notes, and Umicore's is its precious metals page, undated). In the 2024 customs data United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium hold 15%, 12% and 11% of export value, about 37% together (calculated from the unrounded shares). The sources do not say how much of those exports passes through these plants, and this page does not claim that the plants explain the shares.

USGS records the 1989 Rustenburg refinery problem and, for 2025, electricity disruptions in South Africa. It also reports that more than 97% of identified platinum-group resources lie in 14 intrusions or intrusive complexes (USGS Professional Paper 1802-N, 2017), which is a resource figure and not a supply-risk finding. The buying side is spread more widely: United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany and United Kingdom took 28%, 13%, 13%, 12% and 9.3% of import value, about 76% together against about 83% for the five largest exporters (calculated here from the unrounded shares), so the importing side is somewhat less concentrated.

Rhodium is on the US 2025 critical minerals list, and the EU Critical Raw Materials Act covers platinum group metals as a group. The critical minerals hub lists the lists and the glossary entry defines the term. The sister pages are platinum and palladium, the two metals mined alongside rhodium. The main producing countries have their own pages: South Africa, Russia, Zimbabwe and Canada.