Where are the reserves, and who is mining them?

South Africa holds 83% of the world's known palladium reserves, the largest single-country share among 21 minerals. For 10 of them the country with the most reserves has a share of reserves and a share of production that differ by 15 percentage points or more, which is where reserves and mining are least aligned.

Reserves are the part of a deposit that could be mined at a profit under current conditions, as estimated by USGS, so they rise with new discoveries and higher prices and are not a fixed stock. "Years at current output" divides world reserves by world production in the latest year. It is a measure of how much is currently known, not a forecast of when a mineral runs out. Click a heading to sort.

Largest holder of reserves for each mineral, against its share of mining
Mineral	Largest reserves	Share of reserves	Its share of mining	Years of reserves at current output
Palladium	South Africa	83%	37%	399
Platinum	South Africa	83%	73%	462
Phosphate rock	Morocco	68%	14%	292
Rare earths	China	52%	69%	219
Cobalt	DR Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)	50%	74%	39
Nickel	Indonesia	48%	67%	33
Molybdenum	China	46%	37%	65
Chromium	South Africa	39%	45%	18
Lead	Australia	36%	11%	21
Potash	Russia	36%	20%	115
Manganese	Australia	34%	8%	85
Graphite	China	32%	78%	172
Iron ore	Australia	31%	38%	76
Zinc	Australia	27%	8.5%	18
Aluminum	Guinea	26%	not in top 25	392
Bauxite	Guinea	26%	34%	66
Lithium	Chile	25%	19%	128
Tin	Indonesia	25%	21%	20
Copper	Rest of world	21%	not in top 25	43
Gold	Australia	20%	8.5%	20
Silver	Peru	18%	14%	23

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: world mine production and reserves by country. Years of reserves are shown only where reserves and production are on the same basis and both come from USGS. Reserve estimates for some minerals are rounded or withheld by USGS, so shares are approximate.

More patterns

Concentration: How much of each commodity comes from one country?
Producer or exporter?: Is the biggest producer also the biggest seller abroad?
Prices in real terms: Which prices are records once inflation is removed?
Growth and decline: Whose output is rising or falling fastest?
Linked prices and seasons: Which prices move together, and which have a season?
Supply concentration: Which commodities depend on the fewest suppliers?
Land or yield?: Did output grow because farmers planted more or farmed better?
Supply shocks and prices: When world output falls, do prices rise?
Category price indices: How have energy, metals and food prices moved since 1960?
Drawdowns and volatility: How far do prices fall, and do they recover?
Stocks and prices: Are prices lower when the world holds more stock?
Which prices follow oil?: How closely does each commodity track crude oil?
How reliable is the data?: How much of world output rests on estimates?
Net exporters and importers: Who is a net seller and who a net buyer?
Country leaders: Which countries lead across the most commodities?
Export dependency: Which countries rely on one commodity?
Concentration over time: Has production spread out or narrowed?
Import dependency: Which countries buy most of a commodity from one supplier?
Supplier shifts: Who gained and lost importers' business?
Trade price against benchmark: Does traded product sell above or below the benchmark price?
Prices in other currencies: How much of a price move is the dollar?
Do prices lead each other?: Does one commodity price move before another?
Volatility over time: Are prices more volatile now than they used to be?
Seasonality: Which prices have a calendar-month pattern?
Price ratios: What does one commodity buy of another, and is that high or low?
El Niño and prices: Do El Niño and La Niña years move commodity prices?
Who consumes it: Which countries consume each commodity, and how much per person?
Self-sufficiency: Which large markets depend on imports, and which produce far more than they use?
Trade flows: Who sells each commodity to whom?

Every figure is computed from the same tables as the commodity pages. The full set is in patterns.json, and single facts from it appear each day on the facts page.