Rare Minerals Used in Electronics: 7 Ranked by Supply Risk

The rare minerals used in electronics that carry the highest supply risk are gallium, cobalt, indium and the rare earths. In each case one country supplied about 70% or more of world output in 2025, and for gallium that share was 99% (USGS, 2026). These are the consumer electronics materials behind chips, batteries, screens, magnets and capacitors. Tantalum, lithium and tin complete the seven we rank below, and germanium gets its own section because no reliable world total exists.

Few of these materials are rare in the everyday sense. The problem is that small amounts come from few places, often as a by-product of another metal. This guide shows what each one does in a device, who produces it, what it sold for in 2025 and what a licence owner, consultant or investor should check.

Rare minerals used in electronics, ranked by supply concentration

How we chose and ranked: we took seven materials with a clear electronics use and a published world production table in the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. We ranked them by the share of estimated 2025 output from the largest single producer. Where USGS does not state the share, we calculated it from its table. This measures concentration only. It says nothing about the quality of a company, a project or an investment.

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Largest producer’s share of 2025 supply

% of estimated world output, by stage shown in the table

Refinery stages can be more concentrated than mines, so a mine share may understate the real exposure. Cobalt is the clearest example: Congo (Kinshasa) leads mining, while China leads refining.

Consumer electronics materials: what each one does

1. Gallium: chips and LEDs

Gallium arsenide and gallium nitride are made into integrated circuits and optoelectronic devices such as LEDs, laser diodes and photodetectors. Integrated circuits took 73% of US gallium use in 2025 and optoelectronic devices 26% (USGS, 2026). Most primary gallium is a by-product of bauxite processing, and the rest comes from zinc-processing residues. World primary low-purity output was an estimated 900 tonnes in 2025.

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Rare earth mine output, selected countries

Thousand tonnes of rare earth oxide equivalent, 2025 estimate

Best for understanding: how a by-product market can tighten even when the host ore is plentiful. Weak point: a gallium supply decision usually depends on an alumina or zinc plant, not on a gallium mine.

2. Cobalt: battery cathodes

USGS names lithium-ion batteries as the leading global use of cobalt, and notes that the cobalt content of those batteries is being reduced. Congo (Kinshasa) mined about 230,000 of the world’s 310,000 tonnes in 2025. It banned exports in February 2025, then replaced the ban in October with quotas of up to 96,600 tonnes of contained cobalt a year for 2026 and 2027 (USGS, 2026). Most identified cobalt resources sit in copper deposits in Congo (Kinshasa) and Zambia and in nickel-bearing rock.

3. Indium: touch screens and flat panels

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is a thin, transparent coating that conducts electricity. It takes most of the world’s indium and is used mainly in flat-panel displays. China made about 760 of 1,100 tonnes of refined indium in 2025. It placed indium under new export restrictions in February 2025. Indium is usually recovered from sphalerite, a zinc ore mineral, and scrap ITO is recycled mostly in Japan and the Republic of Korea (USGS, 2026).

4. Rare earths: magnets and displays

Rare earths are the lanthanide metals plus yttrium. Rare-earth magnets are strong for their weight, and they spin computer hard disks and disc drives. These elements also go into smartphone screens and cell phone camera lenses (USGS fact sheet, 2014). Magnets were the leading global use in 2025. China mined about 270,000 of 390,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide equivalent, and the United States about 51,000 tonnes (USGS, 2026). For more on individual elements, see our list of the rarest rare earth metals.

5. Tantalum: capacitors

Tantalum stores and releases electrical energy well, which suits the small capacitors used in modern electronics. USGS put the electronics share of world tantalum use at about 60% (USGS fact sheet, 2015). Congo (Kinshasa) mined about 1,300 of 2,500 tonnes in 2025, followed by Rwanda and Nigeria (USGS, 2026). Our guide to tantalum mines covers the producing districts.

6. Lithium: rechargeable batteries

Batteries took an estimated 88% of world lithium use, a demand led by electric vehicles and grid storage, with portable electronics and tools adding to it. Electronics are therefore a smaller buyer in a market they do not set. Australia produced about 92,000 of 290,000 tonnes of contained lithium in 2025, a total that leaves out withheld US output (USGS, 2026).

7. Tin: solder

Tin joins components to circuit boards as solder. Solder was 11% of US tin use in 2025, a figure for one country rather than the world. Mine supply is the most spread out on this list: China about 71,000 tonnes, Indonesia 61,000, Peru 33,000 and Brazil 28,000, from a total of 290,000 (USGS, 2026). Our guide to cassiterite, the main tin ore explains the deposits.

Germanium: the unranked metal to watch

Germanium is used in fiber optics, infrared optics and solar cells for satellites. USGS gives no world production total because most producers do not report it. It names China as the leading producer. Germanium metal averaged about US$4,100 per kilogram in 2025, up from US$1,187 in 2021, and China’s germanium metal exports fell to 7,520 kg in the first nine months of 2025, from 36,656 kg in the same period of 2023 (USGS, 2026). In the US, germanium-bearing zinc concentrate came from a mine in Alaska in 2025.

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Germanium metal price

US$ per kilogram, annual average (2025 estimated)

Where the supply risk sits: export controls and policy

• Gallium, germanium and antimony: China banned exports of these to the United States in December 2024. It suspended that ban in November 2025, with the suspension reported to last until 27 November 2026 (Mining Technology, 2025). Anyone planning around these metals should check the ministry’s position after that date.
• Rare earths: China tightened controls in April 2025 and widened them in October, then suspended the October measures for a year in November 2025, a pause the IEA dates to November 2026. The April controls stayed, with general licences issued to selected exporters (USGS, 2026).
• Cobalt: the Congo (Kinshasa) quota system above limits exports through 2027.
• European Union: the Critical Raw Materials Act sets 2030 benchmarks for strategic raw materials of 10% of annual EU consumption from EU extraction, 40% from processing and 25% from recycling, and no more than 65% from a single outside country at any stage (European Commission).
• Batteries: EU Regulation 2023/1542 covers all batteries on the EU market, including removability and replaceability rules for portable batteries in products (European Commission).

The IEA’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 makes the wider point: small volumes of these minerals support very large downstream value, and concentrated supply chains are fragile.

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Prices of electronics minerals

These are the USGS annual figures for 2025, which are estimates published in February 2026. Prices for these small markets move quickly and each is quoted on its own basis, so compare them with care and get a current quote before any decision.

E-waste recycling: how much comes back

The world produced a record 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, and only 22.3% was documented as properly collected and recycled. The UN’s Global E-waste Monitor expects 82 million tonnes by 2030 and a documented rate near 20%. It also found that just 1% of rare earth demand is met by e-waste recycling (UNITAR and ITU, 2024). So 22.3% is a share of all e-waste by weight. It is not a recovery rate for any one mineral, and it should not be read as one.

USGS recycling data differ widely by metal. Purchased scrap supplied 25% of estimated US cobalt use in 2025. Recycled tantalum may reach 30% of use by US primary processors, mostly from manufacturing scrap. US gallium recycling is new scrap only, with no old scrap recovered. Precious metals are often easier to justify: e-waste can hold 10 to 1,600 ppm gold and 5 to 970 ppm palladium (peer-reviewed review), and ppm here means grams per tonne.

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What to check on a project or a supply contract

1. Host metal. For gallium, indium and germanium, start with the zinc or bauxite stream. A by-product only pays if a plant can recover it.
2. Assay the trace elements. Grade means the amount of metal per tonne of rock. Ask whether older zinc assays tested for indium and germanium.
3. Find the buyer. Tantalum and indium are small markets. Confirm who would buy your product and in what form.
4. Check sourcing records. Tantalum, tin and cobalt from Central Africa can face buyer questions, so plan chain-of-custody documents early.
5. Check the export rules. Licences and quotas can change what reaches a buyer, whatever the metal price says.
6. Screen the ground. Satellite imagery can help map alteration, old workings and access before drilling. It cannot measure trace indium or gallium, which need laboratory assays.

For wider context, see the rarest minerals in the world, the US rare earth minerals map and our comparison of rare earth exploration companies.

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Estimate the metal value in an e-waste or scrap lot

Scrap value depends on grade, recovery and price. Enter your own lot below. The result is the value of the recoverable metal before treatment, freight and refining charges, so it is an upper limit and not a sale price.

Frequently asked questions

What rare metals are used in electronics?

Common examples are gallium and germanium in chips and optics, indium in touch screens, tantalum in capacitors, cobalt and lithium in batteries, tin in solder and neodymium in magnets. USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries gives supply data for each.

What are rare earth minerals used for?

Magnets are the leading use worldwide, according to USGS (2026). Other uses include catalysts, batteries, ceramics and glass, alloys and polishing. In devices they appear in hard disk drives, screens and camera lenses.

What are the main consumer electronics materials?

Beyond the rare minerals, devices rely on copper, aluminum, silicon, glass and plastics. The rare minerals are small by weight, yet they do jobs in chips, screens, batteries and magnets that are hard to replace.

What are the most valuable metals in electronics?

Gold and palladium are the usual value drivers in scrap, and e-waste can hold both at grades of hundreds of grams per tonne. Among the rarer metals, germanium averaged about US$4,100/kg and indium about US$370/kg in 2025 (USGS). Value also depends on how much is present and how much can be recovered.

Which rare electronic components use the scarcest materials?

Tantalum capacitors, gallium arsenide and gallium nitride chips, ITO-coated displays and rare-earth magnets are the usual examples, and each depends on a concentrated supply chain.

Which country controls the most rare minerals for electronics?

China led the output of gallium, indium, rare earths and tin in 2025, and germanium as well according to USGS. Congo (Kinshasa) leads cobalt and tantalum mining, and Australia leads lithium mining.

Is there a substitute for indium in screens?

USGS lists antimony tin oxide, carbon nanotube coatings and a conductive polymer called PEDOT as developed alternatives to ITO in some displays. These have been developed, which is different from replacing ITO across the market.

How much rare earth demand does recycling meet?

Just 1%, according to the Global E-waste Monitor 2024 from UNITAR and ITU.

Are rare earths actually rare?

Not in the crust as a whole: USGS shows average abundances for many of them above gold and silver. Deposits worth mining and plants able to separate them are far fewer.

Can satellites find these minerals?

Satellite imagery can map rock alteration and surface signs that guide where to sample. It does not measure a metal’s grade directly. Laboratory assays and drilling are still required.