Tungsten
Has the highest melting point of any metal. Used in cutting tools, drill bits, lamp filaments, armor-piercing ammunition, and welding electrodes.
Where Tungsten sits among tracked minerals
Share of global output from the #1 producing country, across all 20 minerals PlainCountries tracks
85.7% 2nd of 20 higher than 18 of 20 tracked minerals
Top-producer share of global output, bucketed by value
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more tracked minerals. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 · 2023 data year
Global Production Overview
Nearby Critical Minerals by leader share
Next read: Graphite (Natural) · All minerals
Why Tungsten supply looks concentrated
Tungsten sits in the high-concentration tercile of this 20-mineral desk, per the concentration figures above. Tungsten is tagged as a critical mineral in this corpus, governments track production geography because a shortage or export restriction can ripple through clean-energy and defense chains. Has the highest melting point of any metal. Used in cutting tools, drill bits, lamp filaments, armor-piercing ammunition, and welding electrodes. Global mine production in 2023 was about 84,000 (metric tons (W content)). 7 countries appear in the table below.
The import-reliance figure above is lower than many peers on this desk, so domestic mine or secondary supply still matters alongside the foreign production table. Top-five share is 98% (China, Vietnam, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bolivia). On a high-concentration mineral, an outage or export curb in the leader moves availability faster than on a diffuse desk.
Next comparable critical mineral on this desk by leader-share distance: Graphite (Natural) (~84% leader share). Cite USGS MCS 2024 (data year 2023) when you reuse any figure, we do not impute missing rows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which country produces the most Tungsten?
China is the world's leading producer of Tungsten, accounting for approximately 86% of global mine production in 2023.
How is Tungsten used?
Has the highest melting point of any metal. Used in cutting tools, drill bits, lamp filaments, armor-piercing ammunition, and welding electrodes.
What is global Tungsten production?
Global mine production of Tungsten was approximately 84,000 in 2023, measured in metric tons (W content).
How reliant is the US on imported Tungsten?
The United States imports approximately 51% of its apparent Tungsten consumption, making it a strategically significant commodity for US supply chain security.
Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 (U.S. Geological Survey, National Minerals Information Center). Source: USGS National Minerals Information Center, data year 2023. Values are USGS estimates and may include revisions. US import reliance data from USGS.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.