U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2016–3081

October 2016

Beryllium—A Critical Mineral Commodity—Resources, 

Production, and Supply Chain 

Beryllium is a lightweight metallic element used in a wide 

variety of specialty and industrial applications. As a function of its 

unique chemical and physical properties, such as a high stiffness-toweight ratio, resistance to temperature extremes, and high thermal 

conductivity, beryllium cannot be easily replaced by substitute 

materials in applications where combinations of these properties 

make it the material of choice. Because the number of beryllium 

producers is limited and the use of substitute materials in specific 

defense-related applications that are vital to national security is 

inadequate, several studies have categorized beryllium as a critical 

and strategic material (National Research Council, 2008, p. 170). 

This categorization has led to the United States Government 

recommending that beryllium be stockpiled for use in the event 

of a national emergency (U.S. Department of Defense, 2015, 

p. 3). As of December 31, 2015, the National Defense Stockpile 

inventory of hot-pressed beryllium metal powder, structured 

beryllium metal powder, and vacuum-cast beryllium metal totaled 

78 metric tons (t).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources 

Program supports research on the occurrence, quality, quantity, 

and availability of mineral resources vital to the economy and 

national security. The USGS, through its National Minerals 

Information Center (NMIC), collects, analyzes, and disseminates 

information on more than 90 nonfuel mineral commodities from 

more than 180 countries. This fact sheet provides information on 

the production, consumption, supply chain, geology, and resource 

availability of beryllium in a global context.

Global Beryllium Production

Beryllium is currently produced from two minerals: bertrandite 

(Be4

Si2O7(OH)2) and beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18). Bertrandite, which 

contains about 15 weight percent beryllium, is the principal 

beryllium mineral mined in the United States. Bertrandite ore 

mined in the United States contains less than 0.5 weight percent 

beryllium. Beryl, which can contain up to 5 weight percent 

beryllium, is the principal beryllium mineral mined in the rest of 

the world; beryl ore typically contains from 2 to 4 weight percent 

beryllium. Countries with active industrial beryl mining operations 

include Brazil, China, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Portugal, 

and Rwanda. From a historical perspective, Argentina, India, and 

several countries in sub-Saharan Africa were once prominent 

producers of beryl ore (fig. 1). Other nations that produce gemstone 

beryl, such as Zambia, may also have produced industrial beryl ore. 

The United States produced an estimated 90 percent of the world’s 

beryllium in 2015.

Figure 1. Trends in beryllium mine production from 1946 through 2015 illustrate the dominance of United States production since 

the opening of the Spor Mountain, Utah, bertrandite mine in 1969. With the exception of Spor Mountain and Ermakovskoe, Russia, 

beryllium production was derived from beryl mined from pegmatite deposits.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Ore production, metric tons, beryllium content

Africa

Brazil

China

Russia/U.S.S.R.

United States

Other

1969 Spor Mountain, Utah:

bertrandite mine opens 

2000 Elmore, Ohio:

old beryllium

metal plant closes 

1989 Ermakovskoe, Russia: 

bertrandite/phenakite mine 

closes and beryllium production

from stockpiled ore continues

in Ulba, Kazakhstan

2010 Elmore, Ohio:

new beryllium

metal plant opens 

EXPLANATION

Post-WWII

U.S. imports

beryl for

strategic

stockpile 

195019551960196519701975

1980

19851990

19952000

20052010

2015

Year
The United States, Kazakhstan, and China are the only 

countries known to process beryllium ores and concentrates into 

beryllium products. Materion Corporation is the sole producer of 

beryllium ore in the United States. Materion processes imported 

beryl ore, alongside bertrandite ore from open pit mines in the 

Spor Mountain region of Juab County, Utah, into beryllium 

hydroxide at their mill near Delta, Utah. The processed beryllium 

hydroxide is then either shipped to Elmore, Ohio, where Materion 

converts it into metal, beryllium-copper master alloy, and oxide, 

or it is sold to producers of other beryllium products. In 2015, 

U.S. mine shipments of beryllium ore were estimated to contain 

205 t of beryllium. From 2005 to 2014, U.S. mine shipments of 

beryllium ore increased at an average rate of 10 percent per year.

Kazakhstan’s Ulba Metallurgical Plant, a subsidiary of 

National Atomic Company Kazatomprom JSC, reportedly produces 

beryllium hydroxide from stockpiled concentrate previously 

extracted from the Ermakovskoe beryllium deposit in Russia. The 

concentrate stockpile was accumulated by 1992, before the breakup 

of the Soviet Union, and was estimated, in 2002, to hold a 20-year 

supply (Levine and Wallace, 2004, p. 6.16); consistent with this 

estimation, anecdotal reports from 2015 suggest that only a few 

years’ worth of beryllium concentrate remain in the stockpile. Also 

in 2015, it was estimated that the Ulba Metallurgical Plant produced 

about 90 t of beryllium contained in beryllium-copper alloys, 

beryllium oxide ceramics, and beryllium metal.

China’s Shuikoushan Non-Ferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd. 

processes beryllium ores to produce beryllium products in various 

forms at its refinery in Songbai, Hunan Province. The plant has an 

estimated production capacity of 150 metric tons per year (t/yr) of 

beryllium oxide (36 weight percent beryllium) and an estimated 

production capacity of 1,500 t/yr of beryllium-copper master 

alloy (typically containing 4 weight percent beryllium). Fuyun 

Hengsheng Beryllium Industry Co., Ltd.’s refinery, located in Fuyun 

in the northwest section of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 

was designed to produce 100 t/yr of beryllium oxide and 800 t/yr 

of beryllium-copper master alloy. Estimates in 2015 indicated that 

China produced about 65 t of beryllium contained in berylliumcopper alloys, beryllium oxide ceramics, and beryllium metal at 

these two plants. Approximately 20 t of the contained beryllium 

was produced from domestic ore, and 45 t was derived from foreign 

sources, most likely Kazakhstan’s Ulba Metallurgical Plant.

Anticipated increases in the demand for beryllium have led 

Russia to resume bertrandite mining and construct a processing 

plant at the Ermakovskoe beryllium deposit in the Republic of 

Buryatiya in eastern Siberia. The new plant is expected to produce 

beryllium hydroxide for export to the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in 

Kazakhstan, and to China and Japan, for processing into beryllium 

metal and beryllium alloys. The annual mining and processing 

capacities are estimated to be 25,000 t/yr of bertrandite ore and 

130 t/yr of beryllium hydroxide. Russia, in 2015, announced that it 

intended to produce beryllium metal on a commercial scale by 2020.

U.S. Beryllium Consumption

In 2015, reported U.S. consumption of bertrandite and beryl 

ore for the production of beryllium hydroxide was approximately 

220 t of contained beryllium. From 2005 to 2014, reported 

U.S. bertrandite and beryl ore consumption increased at an average 

rate of about 6 percent per year. U.S. apparent consumption of all 

beryllium materials in 2015, as calculated from mine shipments, 

net trade, and changes in Government and industry stocks, was 

estimated to be about 233 t of contained beryllium. Based on the 

estimated unit value of beryllium in imported beryllium-copper 

master alloy, the 233 t was valued at about $119 million. Based on 

value-added sales revenues, approximately 20 percent of beryllium 

products were used in industrial components, 18 percent in consumer 

electronics, 16 percent in automotive electronics, 11 percent in 

defense applications, 8 percent in telecommunications infrastructure, 

7 percent in energy applications, 2 percent in medical applications, 

and 18 percent in other applications (fig. 2; Materion Corporation, 

2016). Beryllium alloy strip and bulk products, the most common 

forms of processed beryllium, were used in all application areas. 

The majority of unalloyed beryllium metal and beryllium composite 

products were used in defense and scientific applications.

Beryllium Supply Chain

Beryllium occurs in a variety of intermediate materials as it moves 

through industrial stages including mining, processing, manufacturing, 

and end use (fig. 2). Although 90 percent of current beryllium production is derived from bertrandite ore, with the remainder derived 

from beryl ore, the distribution between source materials can vary 

depending on the relative availability of source materials. Before the 

opening of the Spor Mountain, Utah, bertrandite mine in 1969, nearly 

all primary beryllium was produced from beryl mined from pegmatites 

and sorted by hand. Extracting beryllium from bertrandite ore involves 

Figure 2. Simplified flow diagram of the beryllium industry. Percentages are relative to the total beryllium flow 

at each stage; flows between stages do not account for losses, changes in stocks, or recycling. End use category 

labelled “Other” includes 2 percent used in medical applications (Materion Corporation, 2016).

Beryl: 10%

Mining Processing Manufacturing End use

Bertrandite: 90% Beryllium hydroxide: 100% Beryllium alloys: 75%

Beryllium metal: 20%

Beryllium oxide: 5%

Industrial components: 20%

Consumer electronics: 18%

Automotive electronics: 16%

Defense: 11%

Telecommunications: 8%

Energy: 7%

Other: 20%
crushing, grinding, and leaching with sulfuric acid. By contrast, processing 

beryl ore involves multiple steps, including crushing, heating beryl to its 

melting point of 1,650 °C, rapidly quenching the melt in water to produce 

a glass or “frit,” reheating the frit to about 1,000 °C, grinding, and leaching 

the partially devitrified frit with sulfuric acid. Impurities such as iron 

and aluminum are removed from the beryllium sulfate leach solutions by 

solvent extraction. About 87 percent of the beryllium content of bertrandite 

and beryl ores is recovered in the form of beryllium hydroxide and 

shipped to producers of beryllium products, while the remaining insoluble 

beryllium is not recovered and is sent to tailings ponds at the mill site.

Beryllium hydroxide is predominantly used in the production 

of beryllium-copper master alloys and, to a lesser extent, berylliumnickel and beryllium-aluminum alloys. Beryllium-copper master 

alloys contain about 4 weight percent beryllium and are diluted 

with pure copper to produce different compositions ranging from 

0.15 to 2 weight percent beryllium, depending on the strength 

and electrical conductivity required for specific applications. 

Alloys with low (<2 weight percent) beryllium content account for 

about 75 percent of global beryllium consumption, whereas pure 

(>99 weight percent) beryllium metal and composites with high 

(>60 weight percent) beryllium content account for 20 percent of 

consumption. Beryllium oxide ceramics account for the remaining 

5 percent of consumption (Trueman and Sabey, 2014).

Beryllium scrap is generated and recovered at various stages 

of production. Scrap generated during the manufacture of beryllium 

metals and alloys, and during the fabrication of beryllium products, 

is known as process scrap or “new” scrap. New scrap is recovered 

and returned to metal and alloy manufacturers. Beryllium materials 

contained within products that reach the end of their useful life 

constitute postconsumer scrap or “old” scrap. Disassembling and 

processing old scrap are economically viable processes only for 

large volumes of materials with high beryllium content, such as 

military aircraft parts and products used in the aerospace industry. 

Alloys with low beryllium content are lost to the beryllium industry 

because they are recycled with the host metal or are lost to slag 

during smelting. Because of these dissipative losses, the majority of 

postconsumer beryllium is too widely dispersed or highly diluted to 

be economically recovered at present. Significant losses also occur 

as a result of use in space and military applications. Quantitative 

estimates of beryllium recycling rates are the focus of ongoing 

materials flow analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey, but recycling 

is excluded from figure 2 because of the wide range in previously 

reported values (Trueman and Sabey, 2014).

Geology and Resource Availability

Beryllium, the lightest of the alkaline earth elements, has an 

atomic number of 4. As a consequence of its small ionic radius 

(about 0.27 angstroms), beryllium atoms bond strongly to other 

atoms, forming compounds with great hardness and high melting 

temperatures. Because of its small ionic radius and charge, beryllium 

does not easily substitute for other elements commonly found in 

rock-forming minerals; similarly, beryllium is not easily displaced 

by other elements in crystals and tends to form distinct minerals.

Although more than 100 minerals containing beryllium are 

known to occur in nature, most are rare or found in a small number 

of unique localities. The three most common beryllium-bearing 

minerals found in economic deposits are beryl, bertrandite, and 

phenakite (Be2SiO4). Beryl is the main beryllium mineral in igneous 

intrusions and metamorphic rocks formed at moderate to high 

temperatures. Bertrandite and phenakite are the predominant ore 

minerals formed at moderate to low temperatures. Beryllium deposits 

are found in certain geologic settings and are typically associated 

with specialized rock types. These include peralkaline granite- and 

pegmatite-related deposits that contain beryl and phenakite in highgrade pockets or seams and in the gravels formed by the weathering 

of such rocks; high-temperature skarn and greisen deposits 

containing beryl and phenakite related to specialized granitic intrusions; and low-temperature epithermal deposits that mainly contain 

bertrandite and are related to volcanic rocks. Estimates of ore grade 

and tonnage for a variety of beryllium deposits, districts, and belts 

in the United States, and worldwide, are shown in figure 3. 

Although many intrusive igneous rocks, such as granite, 

syenite, and gabbro, can contain minor amounts of beryl, only 

rare-metal granitic pegmatites of the lithium-cesium-tantalum 

(LCT) type and gravel deposits formed by the weathering of LCT 

pegmatites contain beryl in sufficient quantities to mine. Beryl 

in zoned, rare-metal pegmatites can occur with other minerals 

Figure 3. Estimates of grade and tonnage for a variety of beryllium deposits, districts, and belts in the United States 

and worldwide that have potential for minable beryllium resources. Diagonal lines show equal value of contained 

metal in metric tons. Available data for deposits of these types are sparse; some deposit information was compiled 

using incompletely documented past-production, reserve, and resource information. (For additional information, see 

Trueman and Sabey [2014]; Foley and others [in press], and references therein.)

Apache Warm Springs, NM 

Spor Mountain, UT 

Aguachile, Mexico

Lost River, AK

Tanco, Canada

Brockman, Australia

Boomer, CO

McCullough

Butte, NV

Thor Lake, Canada

Strange

Lake, 

Canada

Atlantic 

Shield,

Brazil 

Ilimaussaq,

Greenland

Black Hills, SD

Aqshatau,

Kazakhstan

Hellroaring Creek, AK 

Seal Lake, Canada

Iron Mountain, NM

Victorio Mountains, NM

SE-U.S. tin

spodumene

 belt

Vozneskoe Siberia, Russia

Perga, Ukraine

Sierra Blanca, TX

Ermakovskoe, Russia

10 t BeO

100 t BeO

1,000 t BeO

10,000 t BeO

100,000 t BeO

0.001 0.01 0.1 1.0 10 100 1,000

0.001

0.01

0.1

1.0

10

Grade, in weight percent BeO

Deposit tonnage, in million metric tons

0.0001

Carbonate-hosted 

 epithermal

Deposit type

Volcanogenic

Pegmatite/granite

Skarn

Greisen

Peralkaline/alkaline,

 general 

EXPLANATION
ISSN 2327-6916 (print)

ISSN 2327-6932 (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20163081

Contact Information

The USGS Mineral Resources Program is the principal Federal provider of 

research and information on beryllium and other nonfuel mineral resources. 

By Graham W. Lederer, Nora K. Foley, Brian W. Jaskula, and 

Robert A. Ayuso

containing commodities of commercial importance, such as 

cesium, lithium, and tantalum, as well as clay minerals, feldspar, 

muscovite, and high-purity quartz. Beryl-bearing pegmatite 

districts occur in Brazil, Canada, China, Mozambique, Namibia, 

Portugal, and Zimbabwe. Deposits in the United States that were 

mined historically include pegmatite bodies in Colorado, Maine, 

New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Dakota. 

For example, pegmatites at the Palermo No. 1 Mine, Grafton 

County, New Hampshire, produced much of the beryllium metal 

used for the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Non-pegmatite-related volcanogenic deposits form in a 

comparatively unusual geologic setting where bertrandite and 

other minerals replace carbonate clasts entrained as rock fragments 

in beryllium-rich tuff units. The Spor Mountain deposits of 

Utah (fig. 4) make up the only known economic example of this 

deposit type. Mineralized tuff at Spor Mountain contains pore 

fillings, veinlets, and ore nodules filled with bertrandite, opal, 

fluorite, manganese oxides, clay minerals, and secondary uranium 

minerals. Original resource and grade estimates for Spor Mountain 

completed before 1969 suggest that the eight known orebodies, in 

total, exceeded 10 million metric tons, grading almost 1 weight 

percent beryllium oxide (fig. 3). In the early years of production, 

ore nodules containing up to 2 to 3 weight percent beryllium were 

not uncommon. More recent estimates indicate 9.6 million metric 

tons grading 0.7 weight percent beryllium oxide, with an estimated 

70-year supply of beryllium in proven reserves remaining at 

Spor Mountain at current rates of production (Materion Corporation, 

2016). As individual deposits are mined out, overall grades 

might be lowered below current cutoff values. Volcanic rocks 

at Spor Mountain also contain other mineral commodities of 

commercial importance including fluorite, lithium, and uranium 

(Foley and others, in press, and references therein).

Non-pegmatite skarn deposits form where beryllium-rich 

igneous rocks intrude and alter carbonate host rock sequences. 

These deposits can contain varying amounts of bertrandite and 

phenakite. For example, at the Ermakovskoe beryllium deposit 

in Russia (fig. 3), bertrandite and phenakite formed as replacement minerals within a large block, or roof pendant, of shattered 

limestone within a gabbro intruded by a peralkaline granite stock 

(Foley and others, in press, and references therein).

Beryllium Resources and Future Supply 

The United States currently meets most of its beryllium 

requirements from domestic sources of bertrandite and imports of 

beryl. Approximately 65 percent of the estimated global resources 

of non-pegmatitic beryllium are located in the United States. In 

addition to the bertrandite reserves remaining at Spor Mountain, 

Utah, beryllium resources in Alaska, New Mexico, and Texas are 

undergoing economic feasibility analysis. Recovery of beryllium 

materials through scrap processing and recycling constitutes a 

potentially significant source of secondary production.

USGS scientists are currently investigating how and where 

beryllium resources are concentrated in the Earth’s crust and how 

beryllium materials circulate through industrial processes. This 

knowledge can be used to assess the mineral resources of the 

United States, to establish the likely availability of future domestic 

beryllium supplies, and to further understand the interplay among 

beryllium production, consumption, and recycling. Methodologies 

developed by the USGS to assess global mineral resources and 

supply-chain dynamics help support the stewardship of Federal 

lands and inform U.S. Government policymakers.

References Cited

Foley, N.K., Jaskula, B.W., Piatak, N.M., and Schulte, Ruth, in press, 

Beryllium, chap. E of Schulz, K.J., Bradley, D.C., DeYoung, J.H., 

Jr., and Seal, R.R., II, eds., Critical mineral resources of the United 

States—Economic and environmental geology and prospects for 

future supply: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802, 31 

p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/pp1802E. 

Levine, R.M., and Wallace, G.J., 2004, The mineral industries of the 

Commonwealth of Independent States, in Area reports—International—Europe and Central Eurasia: U.S. Geological Survey Minerals

Yearbook 2001, v. III, p. 6.1– 6.66. [Also available at http://minerals.

usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/2001/cismyb01.pdf.]

Materion Corporation, 2016, Annual report—2015: Mayfield Heights, 

OH, Materion Corporation, 98 p.

National Research Council, 2008, Managing materials for a twenty-first 

century military: Washington, D.C., The National Academies Press, 

189 p.

Trueman, D.L., and Sabey, P., 2014, Beryllium, chap. 5 of Gunn, Gus, ed.,

Critical metals handbook: Hoboken, N.J., Wiley and Sons, p. 99–121.

[Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118755341.ch5.]

U.S. Department of Defense, 2015, Strategic and critical materials—2015 

report on stockpile requirements: U.S. Department of Defense, Under 

Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, 291 p.

[Also available at https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=764766.]

Figure 4. The Fluro Pit of the Spor Mountain, Utah, bertrandite mine—

view to the west. Height of opposite wall is approximately 50 m. 

For more information on domestic and 

global beryllium resources, contact: 

Mineral Resources Program 

Coordinator 

U.S. Geological Survey 

913 National Center 

Reston, VA 20192 

Telephone: 703– 648–6100 

Fax: 703– 648–6057 

Email: minerals@usgs.gov

Or visit the USGS Minerals

Resources Program Web site

at http://minerals.usgs.gov/

For more information on production, consumption, and materials 

flow, contact: 

Director, National Minerals

Information Center

U.S. Geological Survey

988 National Center

Reston, VA 20192

Email: nmicrecordsmgt@usgs.gov

Or visit the USGS Minerals

Information Web site at

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/