Mercury: Extraction
How roasting cinnabar turns rock into liquid metal
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.Mercury's main ore is cinnabar, mercury sulphide. Miners roast it, and the metal vapour is condensed as liquid mercury. Primary mines now operate mainly in China, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Elsewhere mercury is a by-product of gold-silver processing, as in Nevada, or of base-metal smelting. Mexico reclaims it from Spanish colonial silver-mining waste. Recycling of lamps, switches, dental amalgam and chloralkali cells adds secondary supply. Spain's Almadén, once the world's great mercury mine, stopped mining in 2003.
Mercury supply comes from three routes: primary mining of cinnabar, by-product recovery from gold, silver and non-ferrous metal processing, and recycling of products and industrial stocks. Primary mining is shrinking under the Minamata Convention, which entered into force in 2017, and is now concentrated in China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mexico. By-product and recycled mercury are growing as gold mines capture it and fluorescent lamps and chlor-alkali cells are retired. Because the US and EU ban exports, large stocks there go to storage rather than back to the market.
Methods compared
| Method | Share of supply | Typical scale | Recovery / efficiency | By-products | Unit cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary cinnabar mining and retorting | China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Morocco and Norway produced about 210 t in 2025 by USGS estimate; other estimates are far higher | China about 200 t, Kyrgyzstan 5 t, Tajikistan 4 t (USGS 2025e); World Mining Data shows China 700 t and Tajikistan 300 t in 2024 | n/a | n/a | Indicative: locally mined mercury in Indonesia sold at about a quarter of the price of imported mercury (IPEN 2017) |
| By-product recovery from gold-silver and non-ferrous processing | not quantified globally; US output 103 t in 2021 including secondary (EPA via USGS) | Japan's non-ferrous smelters recovered 46 t in 2016 (JMCWM 2023) | n/a | Mercury is itself the by-product; gold, zinc and copper are the main products | n/a |
| Recycling of products and decommissioned chlor-alkali cells | rising as LEDs replace fluorescent lamps (USGS 2026) | Eight US facilities by six companies (USGS 2026); US manufacturers and producers stored 182 t in 2021 (EPA via USGS) | n/a | n/a | n/a |
How each method works
Primary cinnabar mining and retortingCinnabar ore is mined underground or in open pits, crushed and roasted in furnaces or retorts. Mercury vapour is condensed, cleaned and bottled. Mexico also reclaims mercury from Spanish colonial silver-mining waste (USGS 2026).
Cheap where ore is rich; being phased out by treaty and linked to illegal supply for artisanal mining.
USGS MCS 2026; World Mining Data 2026; IPEN (2017) By-product recovery from gold-silver and non-ferrous processingLarge gold mines in Nevada roast or autoclave ore and capture mercury from off-gases in scrubbers and condensers. Zinc, copper and lead smelters remove mercury from gases before acid making and recover it from sludge.
Removes a pollutant that must be captured anyway; output cannot respond to price.
USGS MCS 2026; J. Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) Recycling of products and decommissioned chlor-alkali cellsLamps, thermostats, dental amalgam, switches and contaminated soils are retorted under vacuum to reclaim liquid mercury. Closing mercury-cell chlor-alkali plants frees large inventories, which in the US and EU go to storage because exports are banned.
Turns waste into supply; much of it legally cannot be exported from the US or EU.
USGS MCS 2026 Unit economics are indicative ranges from the sources named; costs vary widely by deposit, region and year.By-product supply
Companionality is about 15%, so most mercury is still mined for itself, but the by-product share is rising. Gold mines and non-ferrous smelters must capture mercury for environmental reasons, so that supply is fixed by gold and zinc output. Meanwhile treaty limits shut primary mines and export bans lock up Western stocks. One projection put cumulative excess mercury at about 13,100 t in 2020, peaking at about 17,400 t in 2028 (JMCWM 2023).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese primary mercury mines (country total) operators not published; USGS estimated 2,000 t for 2021 in its 2022 edition, and China reported 109 t to the Minamata Convention (JMCWM 2023) | China | cinnabar mining and retorting; supplies domestic VCM industry | 200 t Hg (country mine output) | 2025e | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Tajik mercury producers (country total) operators not published; World Mining Data shows 300 t for 2024 and Tajikistan supplied 45.9% of world exports by value in 2023 (Comtrade), so the USGS figure looks low | Tajikistan | primary mercury mining | 4 t Hg (USGS country estimate) | 2025e | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Kyrgyz mercury producers (country total) operators not published | Kyrgyzstan | primary mercury mining | 5 t Hg (country mine output) | 2025e | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Mexican producers and reclaimers (country total) operators not published; about 300 t was legally exported in 2015 (UNEP) | Mexico | primary mining and recovery from colonial silver-mining waste | 150 t Hg (country output) | 2024 | World Mining Data 2026; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Nevada gold-silver miners not published (USGS: production data not reported) | US | by-product mercury from gold-silver ore processing | not published | 2025 | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Japanese non-ferrous smelters and recyclers (country total) operators not published; exports limited to Convention-permitted uses | Japan | mercury recovery from smelter sludge and waste | 65 t Hg recovered | 2016 | J. Material Cycles and Waste Management (2023) |
Who does it: India
India produces no primary mercury and is one of the largest importers: 349 t in 2016, the world's top importer that year (IPEN 2017, from Comtrade), and 19.9% of world imports by value in 2024 (Comtrade). Importers are not named in the sources used. Mercury is not on India's 2023 critical list.