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Who controls zirconium

Who controls the supply, and who depends on it?

Mining is spread over several countries. Australia gave about a third of the 2025 output, South Africa a fifth and Mozambique an eighth. The United States lists zirconium as a critical mineral. The EU and the UK do not.

Last updated 10 October 2026.

How concentrated supply is

Zirconium mineral concentrates (gross weight), 2025

Australia 33%. Top three countries 69%. HHI at least 2,000, highly concentrated.1

HHI is the Herfindahl-Hirschman index: the sum of each country's squared percentage share. We compute it from the country table. We leave out the rest of the world, so the true value can be a little higher. In the 2023 US merger guidelines, above 1,800 is "highly concentrated". In older guidelines, 1,000 to 1,800 was "moderately concentrated". Those guidelines are for companies, not countries.2

In 2025, Australia mined about 400,000 of 1.2 million tonnes of zirconium concentrates, about 33%1. South Africa mined about 22% and Mozambique about 13%1. We calculated these shares from the USGS table. No one country has a majority.

Reserves are more concentrated. Australia holds 55 million tonnes of the oxide. That is about 71% of the 77.5 million tonnes in the USGS country values. USGS gives the world total as more than 70 million tonnes1. Baddeleyite comes from one mine, Kovdor in Russia3.

The making of metal is spread over a few countries: China, France, India, Russia and the United States3.

Who depends on it

China was the leading importer of concentrates in 20251. In 2021, it imported 1.28 million tonnes3. In the same year, world production outside the United States was 1.35 million tonnes3.

Nuclear power plants need zirconium alloy for fuel cladding (see the uses chapter). The United States mines some zircon in Florida and Georgia1. It exports more zirconium metal than it imports1.

How governments treat it

List On the list
EU critical raw materials (2023) No Zirconium is not on the EU list of 2023. Hafnium, which comes from zircon, is on it. 4
EU strategic raw materials (2023) No Zirconium is not an EU strategic raw material. 4
US critical minerals (USGS, 2025) Yes 5
US critical materials for energy (DOE) No Not one of the DOE critical materials for energy. The DOE document also repeats the USGS list of critical minerals, which has zirconium. 6
UK critical minerals (2024) No The UK assessed zirconium in 2024 and found it not critical. 7
Canada critical minerals (2024) No Zirconium is not one of the 34. 8

United States. Zirconium is on the US list of critical minerals of 20255. It is not one of the Department of Energy’s critical materials for energy6. The United States charges no duty on imports of zirconium ores and concentrates1.

European Union. Zirconium is not on the EU list of critical raw materials of 2023. Hafnium, which comes from zircon, is on it4.

United Kingdom. The UK assessed zirconium in 2024 and found it not critical7.

Senegal. The state holds 10% of the company that runs the Grande Côte mine9. By March 2025, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye had said that some local people do not benefit from extractive mining. He asked for more openness and oversight of social and environmental effects9. More detail is in the society chapter.

Sources

  1. 1

    U.S. Geological Survey (Shelby N. Johnston), 2026. Zirconium and Hafnium, in Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 , Pp. 1-2: production and use, salient statistics, events, world mine production and reserves, resources, substitutes, footnotes.

    World mine production and reserves by country, prices of zircon, sponge and hafnium from 2021 to 2025, US uses, trade, recycling and substitutes.

    • (thousand metric tons, gross weight) ... United States Australia China Indonesia Madagascar Mozambique Senegal Sierra Leone South Africa Other countries World total (rounded) ... 100 100 400 400 100 100 81 52 31 26 11 124 160 11 68 70 25 25 290 270 71 40 1,300 1,200
    • United States Australia China Indonesia Madagascar Mozambique Senegal Sierra Leone South Africa Other countries World total (rounded) … 100 100 400 400 100 100 81 52 31 26 11 124 160 11 68 70 25 25 290 270 71 40 1,300 1,200
    • Zirconium reserves8 (thousand metric tons, ZrO2 content)1 500 55,000 500 3,400 2,100 1,500 2,600 290 5,900 5,700 >70,000
    • China was the leading importer of zirconium mineral concentrates.
    • one company recovered zircon (zirconium silicate) from surface-mining operations in Florida and Georgia
    • The United States was a net exporter of zirconium metal.
    • Zirconium ores and concentrates … 2615.10.0000 … Free.
  2. 2

    U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, 2023. Merger Guidelines , Guideline 1, p. 5 and footnote 15.

    Defines the Herfindahl-Hirschman index; above 1,800 is highly concentrated. Footnote 15 gives the older band of 1,000 to 1,800 as moderately concentrated.

  3. 3

    U.S. Geological Survey (Joseph Gambogi), 2025. Zirconium and Hafnium, in Minerals Yearbook 2021 , Text pp. 86.1-86.6: uses, prices, world review by country.

    Uses of zircon, zirconia and the metal, prices in 2021, Chinese imports, and output of the main producers.

    • recovered from a single source in Kovdor, Russia
    • Zirconium and hafnium metals were produced in China, France, India, Russia, and the United States.
    • As the leading consumer of zirconium mineral concentrates, China imported 1.28 Mt in 2021
    • Excluding the United States, world production of zirconium mineral concentrates in 2021 was 1.35 million metric tons (Mt)
  4. 4

    European Commission, 2026. Critical raw materials , Fifth list 2023 of critical raw materials.

    Zirconium is not on the EU list of critical raw materials; hafnium is.

    • In 2023, a fifth list of 34 CRMs was published
    • copper and nickel do not meet the CRM thresholds but are included on the CRM list as strategic raw materials
    • Hafnium
  5. 5

    U.S. Geological Survey (Federal Register vol. 90, no. 214), 2025. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals , Summary.

    Zirconium is on the 2025 US list of critical minerals.

    • vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium
  6. 6

    U.S. Department of Energy, 2023. Notice of Final Determination on 2023 DOE Critical Materials List (preprint) , Summary: critical materials for energy, and the USGS list of critical minerals.

    Zirconium is not a DOE critical material for energy; it is on the USGS list that DOE repeats.

    • Critical materials for energy: aluminum, cobalt, copper
  7. 7

    UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre, British Geological Survey, 2024. UK 2024 Criticality Assessment , Table 1 (criticality results); appendix tables of end uses (Zirconium, from SCRREEN 2023) and end-of-life recycling rates (Zirconium, from ZIRCOMET 2019).

    Zirconium is not critical for the UK; world end-use shares and a recycling rate of 0%.

    • Zirconium (Zr) 3.4 3 3.2 Non-critical
  8. 8

    Natural Resources Canada, 2024. Critical minerals: an opportunity for Canada .

    Canada's list of 34 critical minerals (2021, updated June 2024).

    • critical minerals list identifies 34 minerals and metals
  9. 9

    Agence France-Presse, published by France 24, 2025. Giant mine machine swallowing up Senegal's fertile coast .

    The Grande Côte zircon mine in Senegal, the views of local people, the mayor and the company, and statements of the president. Read with Firecrawl; the site refused a script.

    • The Senegalese state holds 10 percent of its local subsidiary, EGC
    • Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has also spoken out on extractive mining practices, saying some … local populations do not benefit … demanding more transparency and oversight of