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USGS Mineral Resources Program

Tellurium —The Bright Future of Solar Energy

As part of a broad mission to 

conduct research and provide 

information on nonfuel mineral 

resources, the U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) supports science 

to understand

• How and where tellurium 

resources form and 

concentrate in the 

Earth’s crust

• How tellurium resources 

interact with the environment 

to affect human and 

ecosystem health

• Trends in the supply of 

and demand for tellurium 

in the domestic and 

international markets

• Where undiscovered sources

of tellurium might be found

Why is this information important? 

Read on to learn about tellurium 

and the important role it plays in 

the national economy, in national 

security, and in the lives of 

Americans every day. 

Tellurium is one of the least common elements on Earth. Most rocks contain an average of about 

3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements and eight times less abundant 

than gold. Grains of native tellurium appear in rocks as a brittle, silvery-white material, but tellurium 

more commonly occurs in telluride minerals that include varied quantities of gold, silver, or platinum. 

Tellurium is a metalloid, meaning it possesses the properties of both metals and nonmetals.

Tellurium was discovered within gold ores in the late 1780s in Transylvania, Romania. Fifteen 

years later, the element was isolated as a distinct substance and named tellurium, after the Latin word 

“tellus,” which means “fruit of the Earth.” Recovered tellurium has historically been used in metallurgy 

as an additive to stainless steel and in alloys made with copper, lead, and iron. 

Because of its low abundance, little is known about environmental baseline concentrations for 

tellurium or its toxic effect on humans and ecosystems. Human exposure to tellurium can lead to a

garlic odor on the breath, nausea, and eventual respiratory problems. 

How Do We Use Tellurium?

Tellurium’s primary use is for manufacturing films essential to photovoltaic solar

cells. When alloyed with other elements—

such as cadmium—tellurium forms a 

compound that exhibits enhanced electrical 

conductivity. Therefore, a thin film can 

efficiently absorb sunlight and convert it into 

electricity. As an additive to steel, copper, 

and lead alloys, tellurium improves machine 

efficiency, specifically in thermoelectric 

cooling applications where it improves 

ductility and tensile strength, and helps 

prevent sulfuric acid corrosion. Together, 

the photovoltaic and thermoelectric 

applications account for more than twothirds of global tellurium consumption.

Tellurium is used in copying machines 

and as a coloring agent in ceramics and glass, and as a vulcanizing agent in the chemical industry to 

make durable products, including an additive that improves rubber’s heat resistance. Integrated circuits, 

laser diodes, and medical instrumentation, all of which have experienced robust manufacturing growth in 

recent years, contain tellurium. It can even be added to gasoline to prevent engine knocks in automobiles.

Where Does Tellurium Come From?

Most tellurium used today is indirectly mined, as it is recovered as a byproduct of milled copper, 

iron, and other base-metal-rich ore bodies containing trace amounts of tellurium-bearing minerals. 

Globally, primary tellurium sources are large-tonnage, low-grade ores from copper and copper-gold 

porphyry-type deposits, as a byproduct of copper refining. Typically, concentrations of 1 to 4 percent 

tellurium are recovered from anode slimes at copper refineries. Seafloor volcanogenic massive sulfide 

(VMS) deposits can also yield significant amounts of byproduct tellurium; the large iron- and copperrich ore bodies in the Ural Mountains of Russia are an important example. 

Tellurium is concentrated in discreet telluride minerals and the structures of sulfide minerals in 

most gold deposits. Telluride minerals are significant gold sources in many giant gold deposits, such as 

Cripple Creek in Colorado and the Golden Mile in Western Australia, Australia. However, the overall 

tonnage of tellurium in the gold deposits is low compared to anode sludge recoveries from the milling 

of large-tonnage base-metal deposits. Because of this fact, gold deposits, despite containing high 

grades of tellurium, are rarely viewed as potential tellurium resources. Significant tellurium quantities 

are recovered as a primary ore from only two mining districts in the world: the adjacent epithermal 

gold-tellurium vein deposits at Dashuigou and Majiagou in southwestern China and the epithermal-like 

mineralization at the Kankberg deposit, Skellefte VMS district, Sweden. The deposits in these districts 

account for about 15 percent of annual tellurium production worldwide. In addition, minor amounts of 

tellurium were recovered from a small, epithermal gold deposit in northern Sonora, Mexico.

Tellurium is critical to efficient, thin-film photovoltaic cells that 

produce electricity from sunlight. A 2-megawatt, solar photovoltaic 

array occupies a former landfill at Fort Carson, Colo. Photograph from 

the U.S. Department of Energy Western Area Power Administration 

http://usarmy.vo.llnwd.net/e2/c/images/2013/12/05/323603/original.jpg.

http://1t2src2grpd01c037d42usfb.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/04/CUORE_tower.jpg

Cryogenic Underground Observatory 

for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment 

uses towers of cubic tellurium oxide 

crystals (pictured) to try and detect a 

Majorana neutrino.

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2014 –3077

April 2015
Tellurium Supply and Demand Worldwide

Specific international and domestic tellurium sources are not well-known because tellurium is typically

a byproduct recovered at refineries where base-metal-rich ores are received from multiple mine locations in 

many countries and treated collectively. The availability of economically recoverable tellurium depends on 

the demand for its parent metal, copper. Tellurium is typically extracted from copper refined by an electrolytic process, which is a cost effective technique applied to high-grade copper ores. In this process, tellurium 

and other impurities, such as gold, silver, and platinum, are concentrated onto, and then removed from, 

crude copper anodes. For refining lower grade copper ores, the most economical process is a solvent-leach 

refining process, which cannot extract tellurium. A global decrease in high-grade copper ores could therefore 

constrain tellurium recovery and increase the likelihood tellurium would be recovered from gold deposits. 

In the United States, tellurium demand is met by domestic supply and importation. Nearly all domestic 

tellurium production comes from the Asarco copper refinery in Amarillo, Texas, where it is recovered 

as a byproduct of copper anode slimes and the skimming of lead refinery ores mined from deposits in 

the western United States. Whereas much of the data for domestic tellurium production are proprietary, 

estimates indicate that the United States imports about 50 percent of its tellurium. About 75 percent of imported tellurium is from China and 

Canada, with lesser amounts from refineries in the Philippines and Belgium. Globally, the primary producers of tellurium are Sweden, Japan, 

Russia, China, the United States, and Peru. Tellurium reserves in the United States are about 15 percent of the global total (24,000 metric 

tons) and equivalent to approximately eight times the global annual production total (450 metric tons of tellurium). 

Calaverite, a gold-bearing telluride 

mineral, from the Cresson mine in 

the Cripple Creek deposit, Colorado. 

Photograph courtesy of irocks.com/ 

Arkenstone photo.

Did you know... Cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells for solar technology were first developed in the 1950s

How Do We Ensure Adequate Supplies of Tellurium for the Future?

Current global tellurium demands are met through the recovery of 

tellurium from anode slimes during the electrolytic refinement of smelted 

copper. Geopolitical issues are unlikely to affect needed supplies because 

porphyry copper deposits, the main sources of most copper, are widely 

mined in the western United States and throughout the world. Regardless, 

demands for tellurium, particularly as the global carbon footprint is reduced 

and solar energy technology becomes more widespread, are predicted 

to increase steadily over the next 15 to 20 years. The main concern 

surrounding tellurium supply is the question of whether or not global 

copper production can meet the growth in tellurium demand.

To meet increased demand, more efficient tellurium extraction from 

copper slimes — above the present 30  to 40 percent level — may be critical. 

New copper recovery processes, different from traditional electrolytic 

refining, are being considered for implementation, but these methods do not 

recover tellurium. As a result, alternative sources for this critical element 

must be considered. Recycling solar cells may help, but tellurium-rich films 

have long lifespans and to date have not been extensively reused. It might 

become an economic necessity to extract tellurium directly from telluride 

minerals during gold mining in locations such as Cripple Creek, Colorado; 

the Sierra Foothills of California; and southeastern Alaska. In addition, 

although undersea mineral recovery is still in its infancy, tellurium is considered abundant in ferromanganese nodules on the ocean floor.

The Kankberg mine in Sweden produces ten percent of the world’s 

tellurium from underground operations below this original pit and is one 

of the only deposits where tellurium is a direct product of mining activity. 

Photograph from http://www.boliden.com/Global/Press photos/Gruvor/

Bolidenområdet/Kankberg_Foto_Erica_Nilsson_fri_hi.jpg. 

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Did you know... The Kankberg deposit in Västerbotten County, Sweden, originally mined for copper and zinc sulfide,

 now produces 10 percent of the world’s tellurium and averages 186 grams of tellurium per tonne of ore

For More Information

• On production and consumption of tellurium, as well as

selenium, which is in the same chemical family: 

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/selenium/

• On the use of tellurium for production of photovoltaic cells:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1365/

• On historical statistics for tellurium in the United States:

http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/

The USGS Mineral Resources Program is the principal Federal provider of 

research and information on tellurium and other nonfuel mineral resources.

For more information, please 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

Text prepared by Richard Goldfarb. Home page: http://minerals.usgs.gov

ISSN 2327– 6932 (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20143077