Zirconium · Zr
specialty_metal · primary
Bottom line
Zirconium sits on 2 federal critical-minerals lists; mine supply is moderately concentrated (HHI 0.20, 2025), led by 🇦🇺 Australia at 33% of output. US net import reliance: <25 (2025). Prices fell 8% over the past year (-3%/yr over 4y).
At a glance
Headline indicators
Price · 2025e
22dollars per kilogram
USGS MCS (Zirconium, sponge, ex-works Ch) · source marks this value estimated
Price trend
-8% 1Y
-3%/yr · 4Y CAGR
US net import reliance · 2025
<25
Mine production HHI
0.20
Moderate · 2025
From ore to use
lifecycle flow
- 01Reserves
71.8Mt
Australia leads · 77% share
- 02Production
1.2Mt
Australia top · 2025
- 03Trade
5.9Kt
net importer · 2025
- 04Stocks
-
- 05Consumption
100.0Kt
Consumption, apparent, zirconium ores and concentrates (ZrO2 content) · 2025
Coverage
Data coverage notes
- no dataNo commodity-decomposed scrap or end-of-life flows - 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 4 material-flow records date to 2000 or earlier (Yale STAF era). They describe the anthropogenic cycle of that period, not today's system.
- 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
ownership_control_seed
- USGS MCS (Zirconium, sponge, ex-works Ch)
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026
- USGS Minerals Yearbook Vol III, reference year 2019
- usgs myb1 zirconium 2020
usgs_critmin_deposits_v3
usgs_mine_waste
usgs_mrds_2016
usgs_pp1802_global
usgs_world_phosphate
usmin_critical_deposits
15 sources · titles open the source card · url opens the publisher