Ruthenium

Overview

Ruthenium is a hard, silvery platinum-group metal (PGM) discovered by Karl Karlovich Klaus in 1844. It is one of the most effective hardeners for platinum and palladium alloys, improving their wear resistance.¹²

Most ruthenium goes into electronics and chemical catalysts. It is used in hard disk drives, in ruthenium-oxide resistor pastes found in almost every chip device, in electrodes for chlorine production, and in catalysts for nylon precursors and acetic acid.²³

Ruthenium is critical because supply is tiny, comes almost entirely from one country and cannot be increased on its own. The United States lists it as a critical mineral, classed as a by-product of nickel and platinum, and the EU covers it through its "Platinum Group Metals" entry on both the critical and the strategic raw materials lists.⁴⁵

Where it comes from

Ruthenium is a by-product of platinum and palladium mining, which together make up 86% of PGM output by mass; ruthenium accounts for about 7%.² South African orebodies contain much higher concentrations of ruthenium than those mined in Russia, Zimbabwe, Canada and the United States.²

Global primary supply was about 30.2 t in 2025, down from 35.0 t in 2024.³ South Africa accounts for over 85% of primary supply according to Johnson Matthey; the IPA puts its share at more than 90%, with Zimbabwe and Russia the other producers.³² Neither source publishes a country breakdown in tonnes, so no production chart is shown here.

South African ruthenium sales fell by 14% in 2025 because a large release of refined inventory in 2024 was not repeated. Producers still hold some stock, but it has been much depleted over the past decade.³

What it is used for

Global ruthenium demand reached 39.3 t in 2025. The chemical industry was the largest user, followed by electrical and electronics.³

{{chart:end-uses}}

• Chemicals. Ruthenium catalysts are used to make caprolactam and adipic acid, both nylon precursors, and in the Cativa acetic acid process together with iridium. Chinese chemical makers bought record amounts of ruthenium catalyst in 2025.³ Ruthenium is also a highly active catalyst for ammonia cracking, part of the hydrogen value chain.²
• Electronics. Hard disks use ruthenium, and data center construction for artificial intelligence lifted demand in 2025. Ruthenium pastes are used in chip resistors, and thin ruthenium films are used as interconnects in very small chip architectures.³²
• Electrochemistry. Ruthenium oxide coatings on dimensionally stable anodes are widely used in chlor-alkali plants. Ruthenium is increasingly combined with iridium in catalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis.²

The market deficit widened to about 9.1 t in 2025, almost a quarter of annual consumption, and existing market stocks were drawn down to meet demand. Johnson Matthey attributes part of the tightness to strategic buying, especially in China. It forecasts another deficit of about 6.7 t in 2026, even though chemical demand is expected to fall by double digits as the Chinese caprolactam market moves into oversupply.³

Grades and forms

Refined PGMs are typically more than 99.95% pure and are produced as ingots, grains or sponge.² Ruthenium is also sold as compounds, including precursors for the chemical vapor deposition of nanometer-scale ruthenium films.²

Trade and policy

The United States imported about 14,000 kg of ruthenium in 2025, up from 9,780 kg in 2024; unwrought and semi-manufactured PGMs enter duty free under normal trade relations.⁶ Ruthenium shares its tariff headings with iridium and osmium. The EU's largest sources of iridium and ruthenium imports are South Africa, the UK and the United States.²

Ruthenium is one of five platinum-group metals named individually on the final 2025 US List of Critical Minerals, published in November 2025.⁴

Recycling and substitution

Most recycled ruthenium comes from closed-loop systems, in which industrial users keep ownership of their metal, for example spent chemical catalysts. Open-loop recycling is not well developed, because products usually contain very little ruthenium.²

Substitution depends on the use. In ammonia synthesis, iron catalysts remain the mainstream choice, and nickel catalysts can be used for ammonia cracking at higher temperatures. Electrical contacts can use gold, palladium, rhodium or platinum instead. Substitution is harder in chlor-alkali electrodes, where ruthenium coatings are deeply embedded in the process.² Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) hard disks are expected to contain less ruthenium than current designs.² High costs have already caused some demand destruction, for example in catalytic wastewater treatment.³

Sources

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

2. PGM Fact Sheet: Ruthenium (May 2026). International Platinum Group Metals Association, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

3. PGM Market Report May 2026. Johnson Matthey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals (90 FR, 7 November 2025). Federal Register, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²

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

6. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Platinum-Group Metals. U.S. Geological Survey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩