Where does tellurium come from?

The European price of tellurium pulled away from the American one in 2025. USGS's Rotterdam quote (at least 99.99% purity) averaged $81.54 per kilogram in 2024 and an estimated $150 in 2025, against $74.77 and $120 for the US warehouse quote (at least 99.95% purity), so the Rotterdam quote stood 9% above the US one in 2024 and 25% above it in 2025 (our arithmetic on USGS MCS; Argus Non-Ferrous Markets prices). The purities differ, so the level of the gap is not a pure location premium. The gap is also between annual averages, so it cannot show timing. The site's export controls register dates China's tellurium licensing to 4 February 2025, and USGS, not this site, links the European rise to those controls.

China's listed figure rose by 50 tonnes in 2025, from 750 to 800 tonnes, while the six other listed countries slipped from 185 to 180 tonnes (USGS MCS; our arithmetic). USGS's rounded world total, 1,000 tonnes, rose by only 19 tonnes, because the unassigned remainder shrank from 46 tonnes in 2024 to 20 tonnes, which is 2% of 2025 output. China's share of that total was 80% in 2025, and the table excludes the United States.

US import reliance has moved between bands. USGS gives net import reliance as more than 95% in 2021, more than 75% in 2022, less than 25% in 2024 and an estimated more than 25% in 2025, with no figure for 2023, when USGS says the United States was a net exporter (USGS MCS). US imports of tellurium content were 6 tonnes in 2024 and an estimated 14 tonnes in 2025, a rise of 133% (our arithmetic on USGS MCS), equal to 1.4% of the 1,000 tonnes refined worldwide. USGS says the United States does not refine tellurium, so these flows are small beside the world table.

USGS tabulates refinery production for tellurium; tellurium is a by-product, mainly of copper refining. In 2025 China refined 800 tonnes of tellurium, 80% of the 1,000 tonnes world total (USGS MCS). Russia followed with 67 tonnes (6.7%), then Japan with 61 tonnes (6.1%), Canada with 2.8% and Uzbekistan with 1.8%. South Africa (0.5%) and Bulgaria (0.1%) complete the list of 7 countries with a published figure. The top three account for 93%. USGS's own text puts China's share at 80% of estimated world production (leaving out countries whose output it could not estimate) and says Chinese tellurium output has risen significantly over ten years, alongside an increase of nearly 75% in the capacity of electrolytic copper refining.

The United States appears in the table with its figure withheld, to avoid disclosing company data. USGS's world total excludes US production, so every share on this page is a share of a total that leaves out the United States. USGS says two primary copper refineries operated in the United States in 2025, one in Texas and one in Utah, and produced copper telluride from anode slimes, but that tellurium itself was not refined there; the copper telluride was exported for further processing.

Three cautions. First, the world figure is USGS's own rounded total, and each share on this page is a country's figure divided by it. The seven listed countries add up to 98% of that total, and the remaining 2% is simply the gap, not a list of other producers. Second, USGS shows Sweden in a separate row labelled concentrate, so this site does not count it as refinery production, and it says that Australia, Belgium, Chile, Germany, India, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines may have produced refined tellurium but that information was inadequate to estimate output. Third, the figures are estimates, and USGS leaves out countries that produced tellurium in anode slimes but did not recover refined metal.

USGS also publishes a capacity column. For each listed country with a capacity figure, capacity is above 2025 output. This page does not quote the capacity figures, because they are USGS estimates kept separate from the production series. There is no reserves figure: USGS says reserves and resources of tellurium are generally not reported at mine or country level and cannot be reliably quantified, and this site does not estimate them.

This page has no trade table, and that is deliberate. In the international customs classification, tellurium shares a single six-digit line, HS 2804.50, with boron: the US tariff schedule titles the line "Boron; tellurium" and splits it only into national statistical suffixes. Customs data at the six-digit level that this site uses therefore cannot separate tellurium from boron, and any export or import ranking for the line would mostly measure something else. See HS codes for how such lines work.

What can be said comes from USGS, which describes the United States. It reports US imports for consumption of 6 tonnes of tellurium content in 2024 and an estimated 14 tonnes in 2025, and exports of 3 tonnes in each of those years, with a note that exports may include copper telluride. Production, consumption and stocks are withheld. USGS gives net import reliance as greater than 25% of apparent consumption in 2025 (estimated), and says the country was a net exporter in 2023. For 2021 to 2024 it lists import sources as Canada 64%, the Philippines 14%, Japan 8%, Germany 5% and others 9%. The tariff under normal trade relations was free as of 31 December 2025, and USGS says there is no government stockpile.

Those numbers are small and partly withheld, so read them as a description of US imports and not as a map of world trade. Where a material is shipped from is not where it was first recovered: see producing, exporting and processing. USGS's own example is that copper telluride from both US refineries was exported for further processing.

USGS cites no exchange price for tellurium, and this page shows no price series because this site has no free public series for it and does not hold a license to publish a commercial one. USGS takes its prices from Argus Media's Argus Non-Ferrous Markets, which assesses two different quotes: tellurium of at least 99.95% purity, free on board at a US warehouse, and tellurium of at least 99.99% purity, in warehouse at Rotterdam. They differ in purity and place, so they are not interchangeable.

USGS gives annual averages in dollars per kilogram. The US quote was $74.77 in 2024 and an estimated $120 in 2025, a rise USGS puts at 60%. The European quote was $81.54 in 2024 and an estimated $150 in 2025, a rise of 84%. USGS links the European increase to Chinese export controls, which it says significantly limited availability in Europe, and says tight supply in Europe led to more spot buying in the United States. These are USGS annual figures, not current prices, and another grade or form would not necessarily trade at either number. Naming a company here is not investment advice.

USGS says the supply of tellurium is directly affected by the supply of the materials it is a by-product of, primarily copper, and that recovery of copper telluride from US anode slimes was estimated to have fallen in 2025 because the two primary US electrolytic refineries produced less copper cathode. First Solar's 2025 annual report makes a related point, that tellurium's supply is largely dependent upon demand for copper.

USGS estimates that solar cells took 70% of global tellurium consumption in 2025, thermoelectric devices 15%, metallurgy 10% and other uses 5%. USGS also reports a fifth US plant of the leading US module producer opening in August 2025, with production expected by the end of 2026. The company's own 2025 annual report instead says its fourth and fifth US plants have started operating and its sixth is expected in the second half of 2026, so this page does not rely on the USGS timing.

China's Ministry of Commerce and customs administration announced on 4 February 2025 that exports of metallic tellurium; single- or polycrystalline cadmium telluride, cadmium zinc telluride and cadmium mercury telluride products (including substrates and epitaxial wafers); and the related production technology require a license. USGS reports that exporters in China had to submit documents verifying end users and end uses, that a license typically took 45 days, and that a new license was needed for any change of recipient or intended use. First Solar's annual report, signed 24 February 2026, still described exporters of tellurium and related products as generally required to obtain a Chinese license. As of 9 October 2026 this page has found no notice ending or suspending the tellurium measure, but has not found a primary Ministry notice confirming that it is still in force.

With China refining 80% of the world total and the top three countries 93%, exports from China have required a license since February 2025.

USGS names amorphous silicon and copper indium gallium diselenide as the two principal competitors with cadmium telluride in thin-film solar cells. For thermoelectric devices it lists bismuth selenide and organic polymers as possible substitutes. USGS says substitutes usually bring losses in efficiency or product characteristics.

USGS says tellurium was recycled from cadmium-telluride solar cells in the United States, but the quantity was limited because most of those cells had not reached the end of their useful life. Tellurium is also on the 2025 US critical minerals list; a listing is a government assessment, not a statement that there is a shortage.

Tellurium is a by-product of copper. USGS says it is recovered principally from the electrolytic refining of primary copper, where it accumulates in the residues, called anode slimes, of copper anodes. More than 90% of the tellurium produced has come this way, with the remainder from skimmings at lead refineries and from flue dusts and gases produced when bismuth, copper and lead-zinc ores are smelted.

In the United States the process stops at an intermediate: copper telluride is made from slimes at two refineries and exported, and downstream companies turn imported tellurium into high-purity products, specialty compounds and tellurium dioxide. Rio Tinto said on 11 May 2022 that it had started tellurium production at its Kennecott refinery in Utah, using a new circuit that recovers it from copper refining by-product streams and that it said would yield about 20 tons a year. Rio Tinto said the material would be refined in North America by 5N Plus; 5N Plus said it would refine it at its Montreal facility, mainly for supply to First Solar. That is a company statement of expected output, not a production statistic.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory describes tellurium as a semi-metal in the chalcogen group with two forms: a crystalline one that is silvery, brittle and easily crushed, and an amorphous black-brown powder. The figures on this page are refined tellurium, not tellurium in slimes.

USGS gives a global end-use split for 2025, estimated: solar power cells 70%, thermoelectric devices 15%, metallurgy 10% and other applications 5%. The solar use is cadmium telluride (CdTe) for thin-film cells. USGS names bismuth telluride, used in thermoelectric devices for cooling and power generation, as the other significant application.

In metallurgy USGS lists steel, where tellurium improves machining; cast iron, where it controls the depth of chill; lead alloys, where it improves resistance to vibration and fatigue; and copper alloys, as a minor additive that improves machinability without reducing conductivity. USGS also lists blasting caps, rubber processing, catalysts for synthetic fiber, photodetectors, pigments for glass and ceramics, and thermal-imaging devices.

One consequence concerns the export controls. The Ministry of Commerce's FAQ No. 2 on tungsten and tellurium (12 March 2025; marked for reference only, to be read against official documents and actual implementation) says solar modules made with cadmium telluride, cadmium-telluride thin-film modules, cadmium-telluride power-generation glass and cadmium zinc telluride high-resolution detector heads are outside the controls, while cadmium zinc telluride targets are inside them (FAQ). This page has not verified how it is applied in practice.

The chain runs from copper ore to anode, from anode to refinery slimes, from slimes to copper telluride or crude tellurium, then to high-purity tellurium and compounds, and finally to cadmium-telluride module makers, thermoelectric makers and metallurgical users. Supply is tied to where copper is refined; see copper. Bismuth and indium were covered by the same Chinese announcement of February 2025.

Companies at several steps show how it works. Rio Tinto recovers tellurium from copper refining at Kennecott, 5N Plus refines and makes compounds, and First Solar says in its 2025 annual report that several key raw materials, including tellurium and products containing it, are single-sourced or come from a limited number of suppliers.

Tellurium is on the 2025 US critical minerals list, while the European Commission's page of critical raw materials, read in October 2026, does not name it. The critical minerals hub explains what those lists are, and the glossary entry defines the term. For the United States, USGS reports that tellurium was not refined there in 2025, that production, consumption and stocks are withheld, that there is no government stockpile, and that net import reliance was estimated above 25%. The data show that refining is concentrated, no reserves figure exists, the main producer reportedly requires export licenses (as of the sources above), and the metal is a by-product of another industry.