A Comprehensive Guide to China’s Strategic Metals and Critical Minerals

The global distribution of critical minerals is extremely uneven, concentrated in a very small number of countries. Large-scale mineral investment cycles are long—typically requiring over a decade from exploration and construction to operational deployment—resulting in slow growth in mineral supply. This geographical concentration and supply shortage have heightened the strategic importance of critical minerals; resource-rich countries have consequently gained significantly greater influence and bargaining power within the global mineral supply chain, triggering a new wave of resource nationalism among producing nations and intensifying competition among major economies for control over industrial chains. Taking concentration ratios (CR3—the share held by the top three countries) of reserves and production (primary metals) of major critical minerals as examples: more than ten critical minerals have CR3 reserve shares reaching or exceeding 80%, including rare earth elements (~80%), vanadium (95%), indium (81%), germanium (92%), gallium (94%), bismuth (81%), chromium (93%), niobium (99%), tantalum (99%), zirconium (86%), hafnium (86%), platinum-group metals (98%), rhenium (87%), cesium (87%), and rubidium (90%). Approximately twenty critical minerals have CR3 production shares reaching or exceeding 80%, including cobalt (85%), lithium (88%), rare earth elements (94%), graphite (89%), tungsten (90%), vanadium (94%), antimony (80%), indium (90%), germanium (93%), gallium (99%), bismuth (96%), fluorspar (87%), beryllium (93%), niobium (98%), platinum-group metals (91%), rhenium (80%), cesium (100%), and rubidium (100%). Among commodity metals, copper, iron, nickel, chromium, manganese, and tin also exhibit relatively concentrated distributions. For copper, the CR3 reserve and production shares stand at 41% and 47%, respectively; for iron, they are 64% and 69%; for nickel, 72% and 67%; for chromium, 93% and 72%; for manganese, 73% and 74%; and for tin, 57% and 60%. III. Overview of China’s Critical Minerals According to the “Global Mineral Resources Reserve Assessment Report 2024”, released by the Global Mineral Resources Strategy Research Center of the China Geological Survey, as of the end of 2022, global reserves of iron, manganese, chromium, phosphorus, potash, lithium, vanadium, titanium, magnesium, tungsten, niobium, tantalum, and platinum-group metals are abundant, whereas the security of supply for indium, tin, antimony, lead, zinc, bismuth, nickel, aluminum, and copper is comparatively low. The report further indicates that China’s share of global reserves across these 23 minerals varies widely, with most bulk minerals holding relatively low global reserve shares. Specifically, twelve minerals—including indium, tungsten, bismuth, tantalum, titanium, antimony, tin, lead, zinc, vanadium, lithium, and magnesium—each account for over 10% of global reserves, classifying them as advantageous domestic resources. The remaining eleven minerals possess comparatively low global reserve shares and are thus considered scarce domestically. Integrating both recoverable reserves and current production volumes relative to global totals, China’s strategic minerals (excluding bulk energy minerals such as oil and natural gas) can be categorized into the following four groups: Classification of China’s Critical Minerals Category I: Strategically critical minerals where China holds a globally dominant supply position. These minerals feature both substantial reserves and high output: China’s global reserve share exceeds 20%, while its current production share surpasses 50%. China therefore dominates global supply (including exports) and can influence global price fluctuations. They include rare earth elements, graphite, gallium, germanium, tungsten, vanadium, antimony, bismuth, indium, and fluorspar.

Special Research Report on China’s Rare Metals Industry

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period and beyond, ensuring mineral resource security and resolving bottlenecks in critical materials—commonly referred to as ‘choke-point’ issues—will become key development priorities for China’s non-ferrous, ferrous, and advanced materials industries. This report systematically reviews strategic and critical mineral resources and advanced materials from both the resource-supply and material-application perspectives. Resource-Side Perspective: China’s Non-Ferrous Mineral Resource Security Situation From the upstream supply side, China’s mineral resources are abundant in total volume and diverse in types, yet suffer from suboptimal geological endowments and low per-capita availability. Among China’s mineral resources, only 14 types possess economically extractable reserves exceeding China’s share of the global population (18.8%); the economically extractable reserves of the remaining 159 types fall far below this benchmark. Minerals with global reserve shares exceeding 30% include tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, rare earth elements, and titanium. Those with shares between 20% and 30% include tin, antimony, graphite, and lead. Those with shares between 10% and 20% include zinc, magnesium, fluorspar, coal, and iron. Reserves of manganese, gold, bauxite, copper, nickel, cobalt, chromium, zirconium, and lithium each account for less than 10% of global totals. From a reserve perspective, tungsten, molybdenum, tin, antimony, and tellurium represent relatively advantageous resources for China; by contrast, the supply potential for copper, aluminum, and nickel—three metals whose domestic consumption exceeds one million tons annually—is comparatively limited. China ranks first globally in proven reserves of tungsten, molybdenum, tin, antimony, and tellurium—five metals that hold significant sway in the global supply system. Among large-volume metals, China ranks second globally in reserves of lead and zinc, accounting for 21% and 19% of global totals, respectively. In contrast, its reserves of copper, aluminum, and nickel constitute only 3.1%, 3.3%, and 3.1% of global totals, indicating limited domestic development and supply potential. From a production perspective, China is already a global leader in mineral output. Per-capita mineral production outperforms per-capita reserve levels—a sign that geological exploration investment still needs to increase to keep pace with extraction rates. Eight non-ferrous metals—gallium, magnesium, bismuth, tungsten, germanium, rare earth elements, indium, and antimony—account for over half of global output. Five others—lead, tin, molybdenum, zinc, and titanium—contribute 30–50% of global output. Meanwhile, output shares for eleven non-ferrous metals—including lithium, bauxite, gold and silver, zirconium, copper, niobium, rhenium, tantalum, cobalt, platinum-group metals, and nickel—remain below China’s share of the global population. On the demand side, as the world’s manufacturing hub, China not only consumes vast quantities of minerals domestically but also absorbs substantial indirect overseas demand. In 2020, China ranked first globally in consumption of 36 mineral types, second in two, and third to fifth in six others. Twenty-two mineral types accounted for over 50% of global consumption. This massive imbalance between supply and demand has directly led to persistently high import dependency for China’s mineral resources. In 2020, import dependency exceeded 98% for niobium, zirconium, and platinum-group metals; surpassed 80% for cobalt and nickel; and stood above 70% for lithium, copper, and aluminum. The trade deficit in minerals continues to widen: according to China Customs data, imports of seven non-ferrous metals—cobalt, precious metals, bauxite, nickel ore, niobium-tantalum-zirconium-vanadium ores, tin, and copper—exceeded half of global trade volumes. Identification of Key Focus Minerals Critical mineral lists vary across major economies; however, there is considerable overlap between China’s and the U.S.’s designated critical minerals.

China Finds More Gold, Nickel and Rhenium Reserves, Xinhua Says

13 hours ago

Following a nationwide reassessment, China reported sharp increases in strategic mineral reserves, including a 200% rise in rhenium and new zircon deposits to reduce import reliance. The project evaluated 17 minerals across 1,800 mines involving nearly 2,000 personnel.

bloomberg

2026-10-30

China Finds More Gold, Nickel and Rhenium Reserves, Xinhua Says

China Finds More Gold, Nickel and Rhenium Reserves, Xinhua Says

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