Tellurium · Te
specialty_metal · byproduct
Bottom line
Tellurium sits on 2 federal critical-minerals lists; mine supply is highly concentrated (HHI 0.60, 2024), led by 🇨🇳 China at 76% of output. US net import reliance: >25 (2025). Prices rose 60% over the past year (+15%/yr over 4y).
At a glance
Headline indicators
Price · 2025
150dollars per kilogram
USGS MCS (Europe)
Price trend
+60% 1Y
+15%/yr · 4Y CAGR
US net import reliance · 2025
>25
Mine production HHI
0.60
Highly concentrated · 2024
From ore to use
lifecycle flow
- 01Reserves
35.0Kt
Russia leads · 17% share
- 02Production
981t
China top · 2024
- 03Trade
11t
net importer · 2025
- 04Stocks
0t
year-end · 2025
- 05Consumption
-
Coverage
Data coverage notes
- 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 2826 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 (United States) - 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
- BGS World Mineral Statistics
midstream_components_seed
ni43101_deposits
- NREL Renewable Energy Materials Properties Database v1.1
ownership_control_seed
- USGS DS-140 (constant 1998 USD)
- USGS DS-140 (nominal)
- USGS MCS (Europe)
- USGS MCS (United States)
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries World Data (legacy wide format, 2023-2025 vintages)
- USGS Minerals Yearbook Vol III, reference year 2019
usgs_critmin_deposits_v2
usgs_mine_waste
usgs_mrds_2016
usgs_pp1802_global
usmin_critical_deposits
18 sources · titles open the source card · url opens the publisher