Boron

Overview

Boron is a metalloid. Pure boron is a dark, amorphous powder.¹ It does not occur in nature as the element. Instead it combines with oxygen and other elements to form boric acid and the inorganic salts called borates. Elemental boron has few commercial uses, and the industry trades almost entirely in borates. These are sold on their boric oxide (B₂O₃) content. Borates have more than 300 applications, but ceramics, detergents, fertilizers and glass account for more than three-quarters of world consumption.²

Supply is concentrated geographically. Turkey holds about 73% of world boron reserves, and the state company Eti Maden runs the country's boron production, operations and marketing.³ The EU lists boron and borates as a critical raw material, and metallurgy-grade boron as a strategic one.⁴ Boron was added to the US Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals after public comment on the draft list.²⁵

Where it comes from

Borate deposits form where there has been volcanic activity in an arid climate. The largest economic deposits are in the Mojave Desert of the United States, in the Alpide belt along the southern edge of Eurasia, and in the Andean belt of South America. Four minerals, colemanite, kernite, tincal and ulexite, make up 90% of the borate minerals used by industry.²

Turkey's known deposits are at Kırka, Emet, Bandırma and Bigadiç. Tincal is found at Kırka and colemanite at Emet, Bigadiç and Kestelek; Bigadiç also has ulexite.³ About 70% of Turkey's deposits are colemanite, which is used mainly to make heat-resistant glass.² In the United States, three companies in southern California produced borates in 2025. The largest mines kernite, tincal and ulexite in open pits, and two others extract borates from brines by solution mining.²

Countries report production in different forms, so USGS cannot calculate a world total. For that reason no production chart is shown here. In 2025, Turkey produced an estimated 1.5 million t of refined borates, down from 1.8 million t in 2024. Bolivia produced 380,000 t of ulexite and Chile 300,000 t. China produced 230,000 t in boric oxide equivalent and Peru 220,000 t of crude borates. US production is withheld to protect company data.²

Reserves are reported on inconsistent bases too, so USGS gives no world total. Turkey's reserves are listed at 950 million t, far ahead of the United States (48 million t), Russia (40 million t) and Chile (35 million t).² Eti Maden gives the same country figures in B₂O₃ terms and puts the world total at about 1.3 billion t.⁶ World resources are adequate for the foreseeable future at current consumption rates.²

New supply is being developed in Europe and the United States. In June 2025 the European Commission named the Jadar lithium-boron project in western Serbia as one of 60 strategic projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act. At full production it is expected to make 286,000 t a year of boric acid. A lithium project in Nevada that would yield about 170,000 t a year of boric acid as a by-product postponed construction to March 2026.²

What it is used for

In the United States, glass and ceramics remained the leading uses in 2025. Boron is also used in abrasives, cleaning products, insecticides, insulation and semiconductor production.² Ulexite goes mainly into specialty glasses and ceramics, kernite into boric acid and tincal into sodium borate.²

Boric oxide gives borosilicate glass its heat and impact resistance. Borates are also used in eye drops, antiseptics, washing powders and tile glazes, and sodium octaborate is a flame retardant. Amorphous boron is used in rocket-fuel igniters and in pyrotechnic flares, where it burns green. The isotope boron-10 is used to control nuclear reactors and to detect neutrons.¹

In metallurgy, ferroboron is used to harden steel in place of more costly alloying elements. Boron compounds are also used in boronizing, a process that gives metals hard, wear-resistant surfaces.⁷

Grades and forms

Commercial boron products are mostly refined borates and boric acid, plus ground borate minerals. Eti Maden's range shows the typical product mix: borax pentahydrate and decahydrate, anhydrous borax, boric acid, boron oxide, zinc borate, calcined tincal and ground colemanite and ulexite.³

Trade and policy

The United States is a net exporter of boron. In 2025 it exported an estimated 600,000 t of refined borax and 260,000 t of boric acid. The largest buyers of US refined borates were China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Canada. USGS expects China's imports to stay steady because its own reserves are low-grade and its demand is rising. US imports, mainly refined borax and boric acid, came almost entirely from Turkey (90%) and Bolivia (6%) in 2021–24.²

In the EU, the Critical Raw Materials Act covers metallurgy-grade boron as a strategic raw material.⁴ The Act sets 2030 benchmarks for each strategic raw material: 10% of EU consumption from EU extraction, 40% from EU processing and 25% from recycling. No more than 65% should come from any single third country.⁸

Recycling and substitution

Boron recycling is insignificant.²

Substitution is possible in several uses. Sodium percarbonate can replace borates in detergents and works at lower temperatures. Some enamels can use phosphates or other glass-forming materials instead. Cellulose, foams and mineral wools can replace boron-containing insulation, and sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids can replace it in soaps.²

Sources

1. Boron: element information, properties and uses. Royal Society of Chemistry, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²

2. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Boron. U.S. Geological Survey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

3. Boron in Turkey. Eti Maden, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. EU critical raw materials. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (RMIS), accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²

5. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals. Federal Register, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

6. Boron in the World. Eti Maden, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

7. Usage areas of boron: Metallurgy. Eti Maden, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

8. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (Critical Raw Materials Act). EUR-Lex, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩