Zinc Zn
What it is for
Most zinc is used to stop steel rusting. Galvanising is unglamorous and almost invisible in the finished product, which is why zinc rarely features in critical-minerals discussion despite being consumed in quantities comparable to the metals that do.
What it costs
Where it sits in the chain
Zinc is frequently mined alongside lead and silver from the same orebody, so the three move together in ways their separate price series do not reveal. Smelting is again more concentrated than mining.
Who has it
| Country | Production | Reserves | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 4,000 | 46,000 | 2024 |
| Peru | 1,300 | 20,000 | 2024 |
| Australia | 1,100 | 64,000 | 2024 |
| India | 860 | 9,800 | 2024 |
| United States | 750 | 9,200 | 2024 |
| Mexico | 700 | 14,000 | 2024 |
| Bolivia | 510 | — | 2024 |
| Kazakhstan | 370 | 7,600 | 2024 |
| Russian Federation | 310 | 29,000 | 2024 |
| Sweden | 240 | 3,900 | 2024 |
Production and reserves in thousand tonnes of contained zinc; price in US dollars per tonne.
How concentrated it is
Production is spread across China, Peru, Australia and India without any one country dominating. Zinc is a useful control in this collection: a mineral with a similar chain structure to the critical ones but no strategic anxiety attached, which makes it a reminder that concentration alone is not what makes a mineral critical.
What this cannot show
Co-production with lead and silver means a zinc mine's economics depend on three prices, so a zinc price alone predicts supply poorly. Reserves carry the same price-dependence noted under copper.
Other resources
Copper · Lithium · Cobalt · Nickel · Potash · Phosphate · Iron ore · Aluminium · Tin