Beryllium: Characteristics
Light, stiff and see-through to X-rays
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 430 t beryllium content in ore (2025e) | US 230 t (Materion's Spor Mountain bertrandite), Brazil 80 t, China 77 t, Nigeria 40 t. World Mining Data reports 9,679 t of concentrate (gross weight) for 2024. | USGS MCS 2026; World Mining Data 2026 |
| Inventory and stock levels | US industry ore stocks 10 t Be at end-2025, about 2 weeks of US consumption (230 t) | The US National Defense Stockpile holds beryllium metal; potential disposals were 7 t in FY2025 and the FY2026 plan was not released. Ore stocks were 35 t in 2021. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived) |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | Materion does not publish plant capacity. US mine shipments were flat at 230 t in 2024 and 2025, and sales of beryllium products were about level in the first half of 2025. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | US about 53%, top 3 (US, Brazil, China) about 90%, HHI about 3,600 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 4,149 | Three processors dominate: Materion (US), Ulba (Kazakhstan, 81% of world unwrought exports by value in 2023) and Chinese producers. The EU puts US extraction at 67%. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); UN Comtrade 2023; EU CRM 2023 |
| Supply elasticity | low: a main product, but only a few plants can convert ore safely | Ore is plentiful (Utah reserves about 19,000 t Be, 83 years at current output), but hydroxide and metal conversion needs specialised, toxicity-controlled plants that take years and government support to build, as the 2010 Defense Production Act metal plant showed. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no named new capacity | USGS names no new projects. Supply growth would come from Materion's existing Utah mine and from beryl in Africa and Brazil. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | world unwrought beryllium (HS 811212) exports about $29 million (2023) | Kazakhstan supplied 81.1% and the UK 10.7% of export value; China took 93.8% of imports. Beryl moves as ore in bags from artisanal mines; metal and alloys are shipped under export controls. | UN Comtrade 2023 |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Beryllium is very light yet stiffer than steel, keeps its shape over temperature and lets X-rays through. Most is sold as beryllium-copper alloy with about 2% Be, which combines spring strength with good conductivity for connectors. Pure metal and beryllium oxide go to defence, space optics and electronics. Toxicity of dust drives handling costs.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Density and stiffness | 1.85 g/cm3; Young's modulus about 287 GPa (steel about 200 GPa) | Specific stiffness about six times steel, so it suits satellite mirrors and precision structures | CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics; Materion data (indicative) |
| Beryllium-copper composition | C17200: 1.8-2.0% Be in copper | Standard spring and connector alloy; master alloy carries about 4% Be | ASTM B194; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Tensile strength (age-hardened C17200) | up to about 1,400 MPa | Highest strength of any copper alloy, for springs, connectors and non-sparking tools | Materion alloy data (indicative) |
| Electrical conductivity (C17200) | about 22% IACS | Strength plus conductivity is why consumer and automotive electronics use it | Materion alloy data (indicative) |
| Thermal conductivity of beryllium oxide | about 250-330 W/m K | An electrical insulator that conducts heat like a metal, used in power electronics and RF devices | Standard materials literature (indicative) |
| Occupational exposure limit | OSHA PEL 0.2 micrograms per m3 (8-hour average) | Dust controls add cost and restrict who can process beryllium | US OSHA beryllium standard (2017) |