Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

The Periodic Table of Commodities

120 raw materials, from water and grains to lithium and rare earths: where each comes from, who produces it, how it trades and prices, what it emits and how critical it is.

Water

  • Water: Fresh water withdrawn for farms, industry and cities; scarce where demand clusters

Fertilisers

  • Potash: Potassium fertiliser salt mined from buried ancient seas, with few big suppliers
  • Phosphate rock: Sedimentary rock mined for fertiliser phosphorus; Morocco holds most reserves
  • Nitrogen (ammonia): Fertiliser nitrogen made from natural gas; feeds urea and DAP
  • Sulfur: Yellow by-product of cleaning oil and gas, burned to make sulphuric acid

Base metals

  • Copper: Conductive metal for wires and motors; demand rides on grids and EVs
  • Aluminium: Light metal smelted from bauxite with huge power use, for cars, cans and cables
  • Zinc: Base metal mostly used to galvanise steel against rust on cars and roofs
  • Lead: Toxic heavy metal now mainly for car batteries, largely recycled from scrap
  • Nickel: Metal that makes stainless steel and dense EV batteries; Indonesian laterites lead
  • Tin: Solder metal that joins electronics; a small market moved by a few mines

Steel & alloying

  • Iron ore: Rock mined for steelmaking, shipped mainly from Australia and Brazil to China
  • Steel: Iron alloyed with carbon; the structural backbone of buildings, machines and transport
  • Manganese: Steel essential added as ferroalloy to remove oxygen and add strength; also in batteries
  • Chromium: Alloy metal that makes stainless steel resist rust, smelted into ferrochrome
  • Molybdenum: High-melting alloy metal for tough steels, often a copper mining by-product
  • Vanadium: Steel strengthener from iron slag, also the electrolyte in vanadium flow batteries
  • Niobium: Microalloy that makes steel stronger and lighter, mined almost entirely in Brazil
  • Tungsten: Very hard metal made into carbide cutting tools and drill bits; China dominant
  • Silicon: Metal smelted from quartz for aluminium alloys, silicones and polysilicon feed

Precious metals

  • Gold: Monetary metal held as jewellery, bars and central bank reserves, rarely consumed
  • Silver: Precious metal and best electrical conductor, used in solar cells and electronics
  • Platinum: Dense catalyst metal for diesel exhausts, chemicals and glass, mined in South Africa
  • Palladium: Platinum group metal that cleans petrol car exhaust, from Russia and South Africa
  • Rhodium: Scarcest traded platinum group metal, removes NOx from exhaust; very spiky price
  • Diamonds: Natural gems sold on rarity, plus synthetic industrial grit for cutting and drilling

Battery & magnet

  • Lithium: Lightest metal and the charge carrier in rechargeable batteries, from brine or rock
  • Cobalt: Battery and jet engine metal mined as a copper and nickel by-product in Congo
  • Graphite: Mined or synthetic crystalline carbon for battery anodes and furnace refractories
  • Rare earths: Seventeen metals behind magnets in EV motors and wind turbines; China refines most
  • Magnesium: Lightest structural metal for die castings and aluminium alloys; China smelts most

Tech & minor metals

  • Titanium: Ore that mostly becomes white pigment; a light, strong metal for aircraft too
  • Zirconium: Mineral sand by-product used as zircon in tiles and moulds, and in reactors
  • Hafnium: Zirconium by-product for jet engine superalloys and reactor control rods
  • Tantalum: Corrosion-proof metal for tiny capacitors in phones, mined largely in central Africa
  • Antimony: Brittle metalloid for flame retardants, batteries and ammunition; China curbs exports
  • Bismuth: Dense, low-toxicity metal that replaces lead in solders and stomach remedies
  • Gallium: Alumina refining by-product for gallium nitride and arsenide chips; China dominant
  • Germanium: Zinc and coal by-product for fibre optics, infrared lenses and space solar cells
  • Indium: Soft zinc by-product whose indium tin oxide coats touchscreens and flat displays
  • Tellurium: Copper refining by-product for cadmium telluride thin-film solar panels
  • Selenium: Copper refining by-product used in glass, manganese electrolysis and animal feed
  • Rhenium: Molybdenum by-product that lets jet turbine blades survive extreme heat
  • Beryllium: Light, stiff, toxic metal whose copper alloys make springs and connectors
  • Cadmium: Toxic zinc by-product for nickel-cadmium batteries, pigments and thin-film solar panels
  • Mercury: Only metal liquid at room temperature, phased out but used in artisanal gold mining
  • Arsenic: Toxic smelting by-product for wood preservatives and gallium arsenide chips
  • Scandium: Rare by-product metal that strengthens aluminium alloys and solid oxide fuel cells
  • Yttrium: Heavy rare earth for zirconia ceramics, phosphors and lasers, processed in China
  • Strontium: Mined as celestite for drilling mud, ferrite magnets and red fireworks
  • Caesium: Soft alkali metal for dense drilling brines, catalysts and atomic clocks
  • Rubidium: By-product alkali metal for specialty glass, atomic clocks and quantum research
  • Thallium: Highly toxic smelting by-product for gamma detectors, infrared optics and heart scans
  • Thorium: Mildly radioactive rare earth by-product, promoted as a future nuclear fuel

Industrial minerals

  • Helium: Inert gas from a few gas fields, vital for MRI magnets and chipmaking
  • Boron: Borate salts for heat-resistant glass, fibreglass, fertiliser and magnets; Turkey leads
  • Fluorspar: Calcium fluoride mineral, the starting point for nearly all fluorine chemicals
  • Barite: Heavy barium mineral ground into drilling mud to control oil and gas wells
  • Salt: Sodium chloride feeding chlor-alkali plants, food and winter road de-icing
  • Soda ash: Sodium carbonate alkali for glass, detergents and lithium carbonate, from trona or salt
  • Iodine: Trace element from Chilean nitrate and Japanese brines for X-ray contrast and health
  • Bromine: Heavy liquid halogen from brines, used mainly in flame retardants and drilling fluids
  • Silica sand: High-silica quartz sand for glass, foundry moulds and fracking, priced by freight
  • Feldspar: Common crustal mineral ground into a flux for glass and ceramic tiles
  • Talc: Softest mineral, ground into filler for plastics, paint and paper; health concerns
  • Kaolin & clays: Fine-grained minerals such as kaolin and bentonite for ceramics, paper, drilling mud
  • Diatomite: Fossil algae silica powder used to filter beer, wine, water and oils
  • Mica: Sheet silicate split into heat-proof insulators or ground for paint and cosmetics
  • Garnet: Hard, dense natural mineral for abrasive blasting, waterjet cutting and filtration
  • Perlite: Volcanic glass that puffs up when heated, for insulation, plaster and potting mix
  • Vermiculite: Mica-like mineral expanded by heat for potting mixes, insulation and fireproofing
  • Wollastonite: Needle-shaped calcium silicate that reinforces ceramics and plastics, replacing asbestos
  • Zeolites: Porous volcanic minerals that trap odours, ammonia and toxins in feed and filters
  • Kyanite: Aluminium silicate minerals fired into mullite to line steel, glass and cement kilns
  • Asbestos: Fibrous fireproof silicate banned in much of the world for lung disease, still mined
  • Abrasives: Furnace-made grits like fused alumina and silicon carbide for grinding and blasting
  • Iron oxide pigments: Cheap red, yellow and black pigments from rust that colour concrete and bricks

Construction

  • Cement: Kiln-made binder that glues concrete together; a major source of industrial CO2
  • Sand & gravel: Loose aggregate dug from rivers and pits for concrete, asphalt and road base
  • Crushed stone: Quarried rock crushed near cities for roads and concrete, rarely shipped far
  • Gypsum: Soft calcium sulphate rock for wallboard and plaster, and to set cement
  • Lime: Burnt limestone alkali relied on by steel mills, chemical plants and water works
  • Pumice: Frothy volcanic rock used as lightweight aggregate, pozzolan, abrasive and growing medium
  • Peat: Partly decayed bog plants dug for potting media, now curbed as a carbon store

Grains

  • Maize: Largest grain crop by tonnage, mostly animal feed and, in the US, ethanol
  • Wheat: Bread grain grown almost everywhere, traded heavily to North Africa and Asia
  • Rice: Asia's staple grain, thinly traded, so export bans swing world prices sharply
  • Barley: Hardy cereal for animal feed and brewing malt, shipped to Gulf states and China
  • Sorghum: Drought-tolerant grain, a staple in the Sahel and India and a US feed export
  • Oats: Cool-climate cereal for porridge, oat milk and animal feed

Oilseeds & oils

  • Soybeans: Oil and protein bean crushed mainly into livestock feed, with China the top importer
  • Palm oil: Most produced vegetable oil, from tropical plantations mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia
  • Rapeseed: Cool-climate oilseed, called canola in Canada, for cooking oil, biodiesel and meal
  • Sunflower: Black Sea oilseed crushed into cooking oil, grown mainly in Russia and Ukraine
  • Groundnuts: Peanuts grown largely by smallholders, crushed for oil or eaten as nuts
  • Coconut oil: Lauric oil pressed from dried kernel for soaps, detergents and food, grown in Asia

Softs

  • Sugar: Sweetener from cane and beet; Brazilian cane doubles as ethanol feedstock
  • Coffee: Roasted seeds of a tropical shrub, grown by smallholders and exposed to weather
  • Cocoa: Beans of a tropical tree, chocolate's raw material, grown mostly in West Africa
  • Tea: Processed leaves of an evergreen bush, priced mostly at auctions, not exchanges
  • Oranges & juice: Citrus eaten fresh or juiced, with Brazil dominating the juice trade
  • Tobacco: Cured leaf grown mainly in China, India and Brazil, sold through leaf merchants
  • Pepper & spices: Black pepper and other dried spices, grown mainly in Vietnam, India and Brazil

Fibres & forest

  • Cotton: Leading natural textile fibre from a warm-climate shrub, competing with polyester
  • Natural rubber: Latex tapped from Hevea trees, mainly for tyres; synthetics never fully replaced it
  • Wool: Premium natural fibre shorn from sheep, losing ground to synthetics for decades
  • Jute: Cheap, strong bast fibre from the Bengal delta, spun into sacking and twine
  • Timber: Wood sawn into building timber or pulped for paper and packaging

Livestock & dairy

  • Beef: Cattle meat with a long herd cycle that ties ranches, feedlots and maize together
  • Pork: Pig meat, second by volume, centred on China and exposed to animal disease
  • Poultry: Chicken meat, the cheapest and fastest-growing major meat, fed on maize and soy
  • Milk & dairy: Cow's milk and its butter, cheese and powders; processing makes it tradable
  • Eggs: Hen eggs, the cheapest animal protein, laid near consumers and seldom traded far
  • Fishmeal & shrimp: Ocean proteins from feed meal to farmed shrimp, tied to Peru's anchovy catch

Fruit, roots & pulses

  • Potatoes: Leading root crop, bulky and perishable, mostly eaten near where it grows
  • Cassava: Hardy tropical root feeding much of Africa and supplying starch, feed and ethanol
  • Bananas: Tropical export fruit grown largely as one clone threatened by a soil fungus
  • Pulses: Dry lentils and chickpeas that fix their own nitrogen; India is the giant consumer
  • Cashew nuts: Tropical tree nut grown in West Africa and India, shelled mostly in Vietnam
  • Grapes & wine: Vine fruit eaten fresh, dried as raisins or made into wine