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India, in Infographics: Critical Minerals

Rare Earths & Critical Minerals: China Owns The Chokepoint

Seven Minerals Behind Batteries, Magnets And Chips, Across Three Stages — Reserves, Mine Output And Processing. Every Tile Is A Country; India Is Yellow, Its Rank In The Right-Hand Column. Hover Or Tap Any Country To Trace It Down The Ranks. The Story Is The Opposite Of Manufacturing: India Barely Appears — And China Tops The Processing Column In Six Of Seven; Only Nickel Goes To Indonesia (Largely Chinese-Owned).

Hover Or Tap Any Tile — Or A Chip — To Trace A Country Down The Ranks. India Stays Lit.
MINERALGLOBAL RANK →123456INDIARESERVESIN THE GROUNDRare EarthsChina44 MtBrazil21 MtAustralia6.3 MtRussia3.8 MtVietnam3.5 Mt#3LithiumChile9.2 MtAustralia8.4 MtChina4.6 MtArgentina4.4 MtUSA4.4 Mt—CobaltDR Congo6.0 MtAustralia1.7 MtRussia0.8 MtIndonesia0.76 MtCuba0.5 Mt—NickelIndonesia62 MtAustralia25 MtBrazil16 MtRussia8.3 MtNew Caledonia7.1 Mt—GraphiteChina100 MtBrazil74 MtMadagascar27 MtMozambique25 MtTanzania18 Mt#8CopperChile180 MtAustralia100 MtPeru85 MtRussia80 MtDR Congo80 Mt#14ManganeseAustralia580 MtSouth Africa550 MtBrazil300 MtChina260 MtGabon61 Mt#6MINE OUTPUTEXTRACTIONRare EarthsChina270 ktUSA51 ktAustralia29 ktMyanmar22 ktThailand4.8 kt#6LithiumAustralia92 ktChina62 ktChile56 ktZimbabwe28 ktArgentina23 kt—CobaltDR Congo230 ktIndonesia44 ktRussia7.7 ktMadagascar3.9 ktAustralia3.7 kt—NickelIndonesia2,600 ktPhilippines270 ktRussia200 ktCanada140 ktNew Caledonia140 kt—GraphiteChina1,400 ktMadagascar80 ktTanzania75 ktBrazil65 ktMozambique60 kt#7CopperChile5,300 ktDR Congo3,200 ktPeru2,700 ktChina1,800 ktRussia1,300 kt#17ManganeseSouth Africa7,600 ktGabon5,000 ktGhana2,000 ktAustralia1,600 ktBrazil800 kt#6PROCESSING & REFININGTHE CHOKEPOINTRare EarthsChina91%Malaysia5%USA2%Rest Of World2%—LithiumChina68%Chile25%Argentina5%Rest Of World2%—CobaltChina79%Finland7%Canada3%Japan2%Rest Of World9%—NickelIndonesia41%China28%Russia5%Japan4%Rest Of World22%—GraphiteChina96%Rest Of World4%—CopperChina45%DR Congo8%Chile8%Japan5%Russia4%Rest Of World30%—ManganeseChina93%South Africa4%Rest Of World3%—India6.9 MtIndia34 MtIndia2.9 ktIndia790 kt

Reserves And Mine Output (2025) From The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026; Processing Is Each Country’s Share Of World Refined / Separated Supply (IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025; Cobalt Institute 2024; IISD 2024). Every Tile Is A Country, The Rank-#1 Tile Ringed White; India Is Yellow, With Its Global Rank In The Right-Hand Column (— = Not Ranked / Negligible). Nickel Refining Now Leads From Indonesia, Most Of Its Capacity Chinese-Owned.

China’s Grip On Processing
6 Of 7
China Is The Top Refiner Of Six Of The Seven — 68% To 96% Of Rare Earths, Graphite, Manganese, Cobalt And Lithium. Only Nickel Goes To Indonesia.
India: Rare-Earth Reserves
#3
India Holds The World’s Third-Largest Rare-Earth Reserves — 6.9 Mt. Its One Bright Spot.
Cells Where India Ranks
4 Of 21
India Appears In Just Four Of 21 Cells — In Reserves And Mining. In Processing, None.
India’s Refining Share
~0%
India Processes Almost None Of These Minerals — Reserves In The Ground Are Not Power.
What The Matrix Says
Reserves Are Not Power; Processing Is. India Sits On A Real Rare-Earth Reserve (Third In The World), Some Manganese And Graphite — But It Mines Little Of Any Of Them, And Refines Almost Nothing. The Column That Decides Leverage Is The Last One, Processing, And It Is Mostly Red: China Refines 68% To 96% Of Rare Earths, Graphite, Manganese, Cobalt And Lithium, And 45% Of Copper — Often Ore It Does Not Even Mine. The One Exception Is Nickel, Where Indonesia Now Leads (~41% To China’s 28%) — Though The Bulk Of Its Refineries Are Chinese-Owned. For India, The Gap Is Not In The Ground; It Is In The Refinery.
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Reading The Matrix

How This Was Built

Reserves & Output
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (Data Year 2025), Per-Commodity World Mine Production And Reserves Tables. Reserves In Million Tonnes; Output In Thousand Tonnes Of Contained Metal, REO Or Graphite.
Processing Share
Each Country’s Share Of World Refined / Processed Supply — IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025, Cobalt Institute Market Report 2024, And IISD Commodity Profiles 2024. China Leads Six: Graphite 96%, Manganese 93%, Rare Earths 91%, Cobalt 79%, Lithium 68%, Copper 45%. Nickel Is Indonesia-Led (41% To China’s 28%), Its Capacity Largely Chinese-Owned.

Sources: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (Reserves & Mine Output, 2025); IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 (Processing Share). Retrieved 16 September 2026.

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by Tushar Gupta · No Rhetoric, Just Data
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© 2026 PolityPolicy · by Tushar Gupta · Graphic free to share and reproduce with credit to politypolicy.com. Underlying data belongs to its original compilers.