Arsenic: Stocks
Plenty in the rock, little reason to recover it
What this tab covers How much is left and how much is held. For minerals and energy: reserves, current output, years of supply and recycling for the top five countries. For farm commodities: production, ending stocks and stocks-to-use for the top five producers (USDA, October 2026). It also covers inventories and stockpiles.Top five countries: reserves, output and years of supply
| Country | Reserves not quantified (USGS: more than 20 times world production) | Current output t arsenic trioxide, gross weight (2025e) | Years of supply | Recycling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peru | – | 30,000 | – | n/a |
| China | – | 24,000 | – | n/a |
| Morocco | – | 5,000 | – | n/a |
| Belgium | – | 1,000 | – | n/a |
| Russia | – | 500 | – | n/a |
Recycling
End-of-life recycling is effectively zero. The EU end-of-life recycling input rate is 0% (EU CRM 2023). In the US, arsenic is recycled only as new scrap in GaAs wafer making and as process water inside wood-treatment plants; no arsenic is recovered from scrapped electronics or from smelter dusts (USGS 2026). No India, China or Japan rate was found.
USGS gives no reserve figure but estimates reserves at more than 20 times annual production. Arsenic is plentiful in copper and gold ores, so the constraint is processing, not geology. Recycling is negligible, and the EU end-of-life recycling input rate is 0%. Some GaAs manufacturing scrap and wood-treatment process water is reused. No arsenic is recovered from US smelter dusts. China's stockpiles of arsenic-bearing minerals from gold mines act as a kind of inventory. There is no US government stockpile.
Recycling
End-of-life recycling input rate in the EU: 0% of demand met from post-consumer scrap (EU CRM study 2023).Only new GaAs manufacturing scrap and CCA process water are recycled; no arsenic is recovered from US smelter residues.