Rubidium: Cycles

A price that exists only in laboratory catalogues

There is no market price, only catalogue prices for research quantities. A 1-gram ampoule of 99.75% rubidium cost $138 in 2025, up 8% from $128. A 100-gram ampoule cost $2,453, so bulk buyers pay a fraction per gram. Salts rose 5% to 8%. Demand is small, under 2,000 kg a year in the United States. Supply is set by host-mineral mining, not rubidium prices. A cesium or lithium project decision could restart supply, whatever rubidium itself is worth.

US price, 1-gram ampoule, 99.75% rubidium (metal basis), one supplier

Super-cycles in rubidium

Rubidium has no market price, no exchange and no published production, so it has no super-cycle in the usual sense. Its history is one of mines closing: Namibia in the early 2000s, Bikita in 2018 and Sinclair in 2019. Catalogue prices for small lots rise steadily, about 5-8% a year in 2024-2025. The open question is whether quantum technologies or new lithium-mica supply will change this.

1. Early 2000s

   Rubidium mining in Namibia ceased.

   no market price published (USGS)

2. 2018-2019

   Bikita's pollucite reserves were depleted (2018) and Sinclair shipped its last economic pollucite (2019), ending mined supply.

   no market price published (USGS)

3. 2024-2025

   Refiners in China and Germany drew down stockpiles. Catalogue prices rose.

   1-g ampoule of 99.75% rubidium $128 (2024) to $138 (2025); 100-g ampoule $2,290 to $2,453; 10 g of rubidium carbonate $71.70 in 2025, up 5-8% (USGS MCS 2026)

What drives the cycle

• Cesium and lithium mica projects. Rubidium arrives only as a by-product, so these projects set future supply.
• Stockpile depletion. No ore was mined in 2025; when stockpiles run out, supply depends on new projects.
• Quantum and atomic-clock technologies. Ultracold rubidium atoms and rubidium clocks could raise demand from a very low base.
• Chinese refining. China and Germany refine most compounds.

Metrics to track