Beryllium: Extraction
Hand-sorted crystals versus one big Utah deposit
What this tab covers How it is mined, drilled or grown, and processed into a tradeable form: the main methods compared, their unit economics, by-products, and the companies that do this work globally and in India.Beryllium comes from two minerals. Beryl is hand-sorted from granite pegmatites, often by small-scale miners in Brazil, Nigeria, Mozambique and Madagascar. Bertrandite is lower grade but occurs in a large epithermal deposit at Spor Mountain, Utah, the main industrial source. One US company mines bertrandite and converts it, with imported beryl, into beryllium hydroxide. That intermediate becomes metal, oxide and beryllium-copper master alloy in Ohio. Beryllium is mostly a host metal: only about 15% of supply comes as a by-product.
Beryllium comes from two minerals. Bertrandite, a low-grade ore, is mined in bulk at Spor Mountain in Utah and chemically processed. Beryl, a higher-grade crystal, is picked by hand from pegmatites, often by small-scale miners in Africa, Brazil and Asia. Both are turned into beryllium hydroxide, the key intermediate, and then into metal, oxide or beryllium-copper master alloy. Only a few plants in the world can do this conversion safely: Materion in the US, Ulba in Kazakhstan and producers in China. Beryllium is a main product, not a by-product.
Methods compared
| Method | Share of supply | Typical scale | Recovery / efficiency | By-products | Unit cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open-pit bertrandite mining and hydroxide milling (Utah) | about 53% of world mine output (230 of 430 t Be in 2025, USGS) | US mine shipments 230 t Be in 2025; proven and probable reserves about 19,000 t Be (USGS 2026) | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Hand-sorted beryl from pegmatites (artisanal and small-scale) | about 47% of world mine output (Brazil 80 t, China 77 t, Nigeria 40 t, Mozambique 3 t Be in 2025, USGS) | Mozambique produced 1,421 t of beryllium concentrate (gross) in 2024 (World Mining Data) | n/a | tantalum, lithium minerals, gemstones | n/a |
| Conversion to metal, oxide and beryllium-copper master alloy | not published by plant; EU CRM 2023 puts global extraction at US 67%, China 26%, Mozambique 4% | US apparent consumption 230 t Be in 2025 valued at about $360 million (USGS) | recycling may supply 20-25% of US consumption; the leading producer recovers about 40% of Be in alloy scrap (USGS 2026) | n/a | Indicative: master alloy unit value about $1,600/kg of contained Be in 2025 (USGS, from import values) |
How each method works
Open-pit bertrandite mining and hydroxide milling (Utah)Bertrandite ore from Spor Mountain is trucked to the Delta, Utah mill, leached with acid, and beryllium is extracted and precipitated as hydroxide. Imported beryl is processed in the same plant. Some hydroxide is sold; the rest goes to Elmore, Ohio for metal, oxide and alloy.
Large, secure, defence-backed resource; low-grade ore needs complex chemistry and toxic-dust controls.
USGS MCS 2026; Materion Form 10-K FY2025 Hand-sorted beryl from pegmatites (artisanal and small-scale)Beryl crystals are picked from pegmatite veins, often alongside tantalum, lithium or gemstone mining, then sold to processors in China, Kazakhstan or the US. USGS converts gross beryl to beryllium content at about 4%.
Low capital; volumes and quality are irregular and hard to track.
USGS MCS 2026; World Mining Data 2026 Conversion to metal, oxide and beryllium-copper master alloyBeryllium hydroxide is converted to metal, to oxide, or to beryllium-copper master alloy (about 4% Be), which is then diluted into strip and rod. This step is concentrated in the US (Materion, Elmore, Ohio), Kazakhstan (Ulba) and China (Ningxia Orient Tantalum).
High value added; few qualified plants worldwide and strict occupational exposure rules.
USGS MCS 2026; EU CRM 2023; Materion Form 10-K FY2025 Unit economics are indicative ranges from the sources named; costs vary widely by deposit, region and year.Share produced as a by-product
About 15% of primary supply comes as a by-product (Nassar, Graedel & Harper 2015, approximate).Who does it: global
| Company | Country | Activity | Volume | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materion Corporation | US | bertrandite mining (Spor Mountain), hydroxide (Delta, Utah), metal and alloys (Elmore, Ohio), recycling | 230 t Be (US mine shipments; Materion is the only US producer) | 2025 | USGS MCS 2026; Materion Form 10-K FY2025 (company net sales $1,786.6 million) |
| Ulba Metallurgical Plant not published | Kazakhstan | beryllium processing, metal and alloys | not published | 2025 | Materion Form 10-K FY2025 (named competitor); Kazakhstan supplied 81.1% of world unwrought beryllium exports by value in 2023 (UN Comtrade) |
| Ningxia Orient Tantalum Industry not published | China | beryllium processing and alloys | not published | 2025 | Materion Form 10-K FY2025 (named competitor) |
| Brazilian beryl producers (country total) operators not published | Brazil | beryl from pegmatites | 80 t Be (country mine output) | 2025e | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Chinese beryl producers (country total) operators not published; China took 93.8% of world unwrought beryllium imports in 2023 (Comtrade) | China | beryl mining | 77 t Be (country mine output) | 2025e | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Nigerian beryl producers (country total) operators not published | Nigeria | artisanal beryl mining | 40 t Be (country mine output) | 2025e | USGS MCS 2026 |
Who does it: India
India reports no current beryllium mine or metal production in the sources used (USGS lists none). Beryllium is on India's 2023 critical list, and India's royalty schedule includes beryllium (IBM yearbook 2023), but supply for defence, nuclear and electronics uses is imported.