DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15431055
title: Country-level metal and mineral production data (USGS & BGS sources, 1994–2022)

description: General Information

This repository contains two harmonized datasets providing country-level production data for a wide range of metals and minerals, spanning the years 1994 to 2022. The datasets are based on data published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the British Geological Survey (BGS). 

These data were used in the preliminary stages of a research article for constructing HHI metrics [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108208]. The HHI dataset is available here.

Datasets Included: 



USGS Dataset (production_USGS_data.csv):



Source: USGS Minerals Yearbook (annual publications).

Time span: 1994–2022

Extraction method: A code was developed to extract data directly from the PDFs of the Yearbooks using automated parsing techniques. Despite verification efforts, some errors may persist due to parsing inconsistencies or OCR limitations.

Limitations: Not all metadata from the original PDFs was extracted. In particular, values for the United States are sometimes marked as “Withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data” and may be excluded from the reported world total.






BGS Dataset (production_BGS_data.csv):



Source: World Mineral Statistics Dataset (British Geological Survey)

Time span: 1994–2022

Extraction method: A web scraping script was written to extract data from the BGS online database.

Limitations: Not all metadata from the original PDFs was extracted.




Column Descriptions (applies to both datasets):



material: Name of the metal or mineral (e.g., copper, bauxite, cadmium)

stage: Production stage in the material value chain such as 'mine', 'smelter', or 'refinery'. Some materials are listed with the type 'production' when no specific stage is indicated in the USGS or BGS documentation.

country: Name of the producing country

year: Calendar year of reported production (from 1994 to 2022)

value: Reported production quantity (in tonnes)

note: Optional field with clarifications (e.g., ‘gross weight’ for chromium)


Units and Measurement (applies to both datasets):



All values are expressed in metric tonnes.

For minerals, the quantity refers to the gross weight of the mineral.

For metals, the quantity reflects the metal content, unless otherwise specified in the note column.


Limitations: The raw production data from both the USGS and BGS sources are not the final results used in the article. Robustness and consistency checks were conducted exclusively at the level of the HHI indicators, not directly on the raw production data shared here.

More details are available in the README.txt

Citing the dataset

Please cite this dataset in any derivative work : Bucciarelli,P. (2025). Country-level metal and mineral production data (USGS & BGS sources, 1994–2022). Zenodo. [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15431056]A reference to our paper would also be appreciated: Bucciarelli, P., Hache, E., & Mignon, V. (2025). Evaluating criticality of strategic metals: Are the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and usual concentration thresholds still relevant? Energy Economics, 143, 108208 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108208]

Contact information

 If you would like further information about the dataset, please contact pauline.bucciarelli@parisnanterre.fr.