Ruthenium · Ru
PGM · byproduct
Bottom line
Ruthenium sits on 2 federal critical-minerals lists; mine supply is highly concentrated (HHI 0.87, 2021), led by 🇿🇦 South Africa at 93% of output. Prices rose 53% over the past year (+5%/yr over 4y).
At a glance
Headline indicators
Price · 2025
690dollars per troy ounce
USGS MCS (Ruthenium)
Price trend
+53% 1Y
+5%/yr · 4Y CAGR
Mine production HHI
0.87
Highly concentrated · 2021
From ore to use
lifecycle flow
- 01Reserves
-
Reported at PGM group level
- 02Production
33,741kilograms
South Africa top · 2021
- 03Trade
14,000kilograms
net importer · 2025
- 04Stocks
-
- 05Consumption
17,635.7kilograms
Chemical · 2025
Coverage
Data coverage notes
- group-levelRuthenium: reserves reported only at the PGM group level - USGS MCS publishes reserves for the platinum-group metals as a single aggregate (world total >76,000,000 kg PGM in 2025; South Africa 63,000,000 kg), with no per-metal split. The empty reserves table reflects the source's reporting grain, not missing coverage.
- no dataNo commodity-decomposed recycling data - No USGS MCS Fig13 scrap rows. EU WEEE / battery EOL flows (Phase 6.1.1) are country-keyed only - see country profiles.
- datedMaterial-flow analysis is historical - All 11 material-flow records date to 2010 or earlier (Yale STAF era). They describe the anthropogenic cycle of that period, not today's system.
- datedEnvironmental footprint is dated - Cradle-to-gate intensity rows carry a 2008 inventory vintage (Nuss & Eckelman-era LCA). Current-process footprints are not yet in scope.
- datedExport-restriction inventory ends 2020 - The OECD industrial-raw-materials inventory (vendored snapshot) reports HS-line measures only through 2020; restrictions enacted since are not reflected in the measure table.
- narrowConsumption geography is single-economy (World) - Reported consumption covers one economy only - the world usage split must be read from trade flows, not from a consumption table.
Methodology
How strata reads a commodity
The eight-stage lens, the observed-vs-estimated membrane, stage-honest supply, per-stage concentration, ownership resolution and the demand lens - the full method is illustrated live on copper, nickel and lithium.
Provenance
Where this data comes from
midstream_components_seed
ni43101_deposits
- Statistics Canada Table 16-10-0022
- USGS MCS (Ruthenium)
- usgs myb1 platinum group 2021
usgs_deposit_gt
usgs_mrds_2016
8 sources · titles open the source card · url opens the publisher