Commodity Guide on Metal Pilot Blog

Tungsten — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 22 September 2026. Prices are quoted as multi-year and full-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Reserves, production splits, balances and historical series are estimates from agency and industry data, rounded for clarity. This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Tungsten is the metal that cuts every other metal. It has the highest melting point of any metal and, bonded to carbon as tungsten carbide, it becomes the working edge of nearly every drill bit, milling insert and mining tool on Earth — and the dense core of armour-piercing munitions. The tungsten market is also the clearest single-country market in commodities: China mines about four-fifths of the world’s tungsten and refines about 85% of its key intermediate, and in February 2025 Beijing put tungsten products under export licensing. The benchmark’s monthly average more than doubled during 2025 alone, from $331 to $862/mtu. This report is the free, big-picture primer on how the tungsten market actually works — where the metal comes from, how it is priced without an exchange, who controls it, what it is used for, and which regimes favour it. For the company-level data behind the charts — producers and developers screened by production, resources and cost — go to Metal Pilot.

Cobalt — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 16:00:00 +0200

Data as of 6 September 2026. Prices are quoted as multi-year and full-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Reserves, production splits, balances and historical series are estimates from agency and industry data, rounded for clarity. This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Cobalt is the metal nobody sets out to mine. Roughly 99% of it comes out of the ground as a by-product of copper and nickel, which means the cobalt market’s own price has almost no power to call forth new supply — and that single fact explains every boom and bust in its history. It is also the commodity where politics has most visibly seized the wheel: in February 2025 the Democratic Republic of the Congo, source of three-quarters of world output, simply banned cobalt exports, then replaced the ban with a hard export quota running to 2027 — and the price roughly tripled. This report is the free, big-picture primer on how the cobalt market actually works: where it comes from, why supply is deaf to price, who refines it, what it is used for, and which economic regimes favour it. For the company-level data behind the charts — every producer screened by production, resources and cost — go to Metal Pilot.

Iron — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 10 October 2026. Iron ore market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (and its earlier editions for the history), worldsteel’s World Steel in Figures 2026, the Australian Government’s Resources and Energy Quarterly (September 2026), UN Comtrade and the producers’ 2025 annual reports; trade by country is for 2024, the latest year worldsteel prints country by country. Prices are full-year and multi-year averages of the World Bank’s iron ore series, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time; 2026 prices enter only as a clearly labelled aside. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Platinum Group Metals — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 6 July 2026. Prices are quoted as multi-year and full-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Reserves, production splits, balances and historical series are estimates from agency data, rounded for clarity. This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

The platinum group metals market is the strangest corner of commodities: six precious metals rarer than gold, mined at scale in exactly two places on Earth, and consumed mostly by a single technology — the catalytic converter — whose days are numbered. That collision of scarcity and obsolescence makes the platinum group metals market the great cycle machine of the precious complex: palladium delivered a six-year supercycle and then lost two-thirds of its value; rhodium went from $700 to nearly $30,000 an ounce and back; and platinum, after a decade in the wilderness, staged 2025’s most spectacular commodity rally — four consecutive supply deficits driving it to all-time highs. This report is the free, big-picture primer on how the PGM market actually works — the six metals and their baskets, the South African-Russian duopoly, the autocatalyst engine and its electric twilight, and what actually drives returns. For the company-level data behind the charts — every producer screened by production, resources and cost — go to Metal Pilot.

Coal — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0200

Data as of 6 July 2026. Prices are quoted as multi-year and full-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Reserves, production splits, balances and historical series are estimates from agency data, rounded for clarity. This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Coal is the fuel the modern world was built on — and the one it keeps declaring dead while burning more of it than ever. In 2025 the coal market set another all-time record: 8.85 billion tonnes consumed, more than every other mined commodity in this series combined, generating a third of the world’s electricity and the coke behind most of its steel. It is also the most polarised market in commodities: written off by Western capital, priced for extinction, and yet — as 2022’s energy crisis proved, when its price quadrupled — still the system’s fuel of last resort. This report is the free, big-picture primer on how the coal market actually works — thermal versus coking, the seaborne trade and its chokepoints, who mines it and who quietly finances it, and what actually drives the cycle. For the company-level data behind the charts — every producer screened by production, reserves and cost — go to Metal Pilot.

Nickel — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0200

Data as of 10 October 2026. Nickel market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (and its earlier editions for the history), the International Nickel Study Group’s April 2026 statistics, the IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026, UN Comtrade and the producers’ latest annual reports. Prices are full-year and multi-year averages of the LME cash price as the World Bank compiles it, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time; 2026 prices enter only as a clearly labelled aside. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Rare Earths — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0200

Data as of 9 August 2026. Prices are quoted as full-year averages of assessed benchmark prices, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Reserves, production splits and historical series are estimates from agency data, rounded for clarity. This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Rare earths are the seventeen metals that make modern technology small, light and efficient — above all the neodymium magnets inside every EV motor, wind turbine, smartphone and guided missile. No commodity carries more geopolitics per kilogram: the rare earth market is tiny in dollar terms, yet China’s grip on it — roughly 70% of mining and 90% of refining and magnet-making — has made these obscure elements the sharpest pressure point in the US-China trade conflict and the object of billion-dollar Western industrial policy. This report is the free, big-picture primer on how the market actually works — what the seventeen elements do, how the price is set without an exchange, who mines and separates them, and what actually moves the sector. For the company-level data behind the charts — every producer screened by production, resources and role in the chain — go to Metal Pilot.

Lithium — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 10 October 2026. Lithium market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (and its earlier editions for the history), the IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026, UN Comtrade and the producers’ latest annual reports. Prices are full-year and multi-year averages of the assessed battery-grade lithium carbonate price, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time; 2026 prices enter only as a clearly labelled aside. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Natural Gas — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0200

Data as of 8 October 2026. Market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the Energy Institute (EI) Statistical Review 2026, the U.S. EIA, OPEC, the IEA, the GECF and companies’ 2025 annual filings. Prices are quoted as full-year and multi-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Since the end of February 2026 the war in the Gulf has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz to LNG carriers — a live, unresolved disruption that this guide treats only in clearly labelled asides. The guide is refreshed once a year, after EI’s Statistical Review is published each June. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Silver — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 8 October 2026. Market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, The Silver Institute’s World Silver Survey 2026 (prepared by Metals Focus, April 2026; cited in the tables as WSS 2026), UN Comtrade and the producers’ 2025 filings. Prices are full-year, multi-year and trailing-12-month averages, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time. Stocks — vault, exchange and ETP holdings — are the latest dated snapshot; 2026 prices enter only through the labelled trailing-12-month average (October 2025–September 2026) and clearly labelled asides. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Uranium — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0200

Data as of 10 October 2026. Uranium market structure is shown for 2024, the latest year every agency has counted, from the OECD-NEA/IAEA Uranium 2026: Resources, Production and Demand (the “Red Book”), with the Red Book’s expected 2025 output, the World Nuclear Association (WNA), the IAEA’s Nuclear Power Reactors in the World (2026 edition) and the producers’ 2025 filings. Prices are full-year, multi-year and trailing-12-month averages of the industry’s month-end spot and long-term prices, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time; 2026 prices enter only through the labelled trailing-12-month average (October 2025–September 2026) and one labelled aside. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 9.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Copper — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 9 October 2026. Copper market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) — its World Copper Factbook 2025 and the September 2026 Copper Bulletin — UN Comtrade and the producers’ 2025 filings. Prices are full-year, multi-year and trailing-12-month averages, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time; 2026 prices enter only through the labelled trailing-12-month average (October 2025–September 2026) and clearly labelled asides. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Gold — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 7 October 2026. Market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, the World Gold Council’s supply-and-demand statistics (data to 30 June 2026), UN Comtrade and the miners’ 2025 filings. Prices are full-year, multi-year and trailing-12-month averages, not a single day’s quote, so this report stays useful over time. Stocks and holdings (above-ground stock, vault and ETF holdings, official reserves) are the latest dated snapshot, and 2026 flows and prices appear only in clearly labelled asides. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Oil — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Data as of 6 October 2026. Market structure is shown for full-year 2025, the latest complete year, from the Energy Institute (EI) Statistical Review 2026, the U.S. EIA, OPEC, the IEA and companies’ 2025 annual filings. Prices are quoted as full-year and multi-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Since 28 February 2026 a war in the Gulf has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz — a live, unresolved disruption that this guide treats only in clearly labelled asides; the month-by-month picture is tracked in the Oil Market Monitor. The guide is refreshed once a year, after EI’s Statistical Review is published each June. Every figure is traced to its source in the register at the end (Section 8.1). This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.