Arsenic: Characteristics
Two markets split by purity: cheap trioxide and chip-grade metal
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 61,000 t arsenic trioxide, gross weight (2025e), about 46,000 t As content | Peru 30,000 t, China 24,000 t, Morocco 5,000 t, Belgium 1,000 t and Russia 500 t of As2O3. As content uses USGS's 75.71% factor. Chile and Mexico may produce but report none. | USGS MCS 2026 (As content derived) |
| Inventory and stock levels | not published; large unrecorded stocks of arsenic-bearing dust | There are no exchange or government stocks. Smelters store arsenic dusts and residues they cannot sell, and orpiment and realgar from Sichuan gold mines were stockpiled for later recovery. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | about 75% (61,000 t output against 81,000 t refinery capacity, 2025e, derived) | Peru ran at about 81%, China 80%, Morocco 63%, Belgium 67% and Russia only 13% (500 of 4,000 t). | USGS MCS 2026 (derived) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | Peru about 50%, top 3 (Peru, China, Morocco) about 97%, HHI about 4,100 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 4,137 | Managem's Guemassa plant is Morocco's sole producer. High-purity metal for GaAs comes mostly from China, which supplied 95% of US metal imports in 2021-24. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); World Mining Data 2026; USGS Minerals Yearbook 2021 |
| Supply elasticity | nil to price: by-product of copper, gold and lead smelting (companionality about 95%) | Smelters capture arsenic because they must. Higher prices bring stored dust to market quickly, but no extra smelting; lower prices send more to waste. | Nassar et al. 2015; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no named new capacity; about 20,000 t of idle capacity | Reserves are estimated at more than 20 times world output. Rising arsenic in copper concentrates (enargite ores in Chile and Peru) adds unwanted supply. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | world arsenic metal (HS 280480) exports about $15 million (2023) | China (41.9%), Japan (23.4%) and Germany (10.2%) led metal exports; the US (17.0%), China (10.9%) and India (8.1%) led imports in 2024. Trioxide moves as dangerous goods (UN class 6.1). The chokepoint is high-purity metal refining in China. | UN Comtrade 2023-2024; USGS MCS 2026 |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Arsenic is a toxic metalloid sold mainly as arsenic trioxide for wood preservatives and chemicals, and as small amounts of very pure metal for compound semiconductors. In gallium arsenide and indium gallium arsenide it gives fast electrons and efficient light emission. Purity sets two completely different markets: 99% metal and trioxide at about $2-4/kg, and 6N-7N metal for wafers.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purity / grade | 99% min metal (US benchmark); 99.9999-99.99999% (6N-7N) for GaAs and InGaAs | Separates commodity chemical use from semiconductor supply | Argus via USGS MCS 2026 |
| Arsenic content of compounds | As2O3 75.71%; arsenic acid 52.8% | Converts trade and price data to contained arsenic | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Sublimation | grey arsenic sublimes at about 615 C at atmospheric pressure | Lets smelters collect As2O3 from flue gas and refiners purify by sublimation | CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics |
| GaAs band gap | 1.42 eV, direct | Efficient light emission and high-efficiency space solar cells | Standard semiconductor data (indicative) |
| GaAs electron mobility | about 8,500 cm2/V s (silicon about 1,400) | Suits RF power amplifiers in phones, radar and satellites | Standard semiconductor data (indicative) |
| Hardening of lead | small additions to lead alloys | Hardens lead shot and strengthens lead-acid battery grids | USGS MCS 2026 |