Urban Mining of Critical Minerals
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Urban mining means recovering metals from products that have reached the end of their life, such as batteries, vehicles, engines and catalysts. It already works at scale where a single product returns in volume: USGS reports that secondary lead from old batteries equalled 70% of U.S. lead consumption in 2025, that scrap supplied about 60% of nickel, and that about 50,000 kilograms of palladium and 8,600 kilograms of platinum were recovered from U.S. automobile catalytic converters. It works much less for metals that are spread thinly across many products.
70%
of U.S. lead consumption in 2025 was secondary lead, nearly all from old lead-acid batteries
60%
of U.S. nickel consumption in 2025 came from scrap, mostly stainless-steel scrap
50,000 kg
of palladium recovered from U.S. automobile catalytic converters in 2025, plus 8,600 kg of platinum
140,000 kg
of palladium and platinum recovered globally from new and old scrap in 2025
Which end-of-life products are mined successfully today?
The table lists the streams where USGS documents recovery from end-of-life products.
| Product stream | Metals recovered | What USGS reports |
|---|---|---|
| Lead-acid batteries | Lead, antimony | Secondary lead of about 1 million tonnes, 70% of apparent consumption, nearly all from old scrap. Most secondary antimony is recovered at secondary lead smelters as antimonial lead, mostly generated and consumed by the lead-acid battery industry. |
| Stainless and alloy steel scrap | Nickel, chromium | Scrap supplied about 60% of nickel consumption; recycled chromium in stainless-steel scrap equalled 21% of apparent consumption. |
| Automobile catalytic converters | Palladium, platinum | About 50,000 kg of palladium and 8,600 kg of platinum recovered in the U.S.; about 140,000 kg of both from new and old scrap worldwide. |
| Turbine blades, vanes and spent reforming catalysts | Rhenium | Superalloy scrap and scrapped blades and vanes are recycled hydrometallurgically to rhenium metal or made into engine revert by a growing number of companies; the U.S. is a leading producer of secondary rhenium. |
| Spent refining and chemical catalysts | Vanadium, molybdenum, rhenium | Vanadium recycling is mainly reprocessing vanadium catalysts into new catalysts; molybdenum is recycled as part of catalysts and scrap. |
| Old aluminum products | Aluminum | About 44% of the 3.6 million tonnes recovered in 2025 came from old scrap, equal to about 28% of apparent consumption. |
| Used tin products | Tin | About 10,000 tonnes from old scrap in 2025, 22% of apparent consumption. |
| Military infrared optics and solar wafers | Germanium | Infrared lenses and windows from decommissioned equipment and germanium solar wafers are recycled; USGS says the amount cannot be estimated reliably. |
| CdTe solar modules | Tellurium | Recycled in the U.S., but in limited quantity because most modules are new. |
Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 chapters on lead, antimony, nickel, chromium, platinum-group metals, rhenium, vanadium, molybdenum, aluminum, tin, germanium and tellurium.
What do the successful cases have in common?
The successful cases share a concentrated, collectable stream and a metal that matters to the product's value. Lead-acid batteries are collected in volume and are mostly lead, catalytic converters carry palladium and platinum worth recovering, and stainless steel scrap flows back into the same alloy it came from. The metals that are hard to recover, such as gallium, indium and rare earths, sit in small amounts across many electronic products; the e-waste page and the barriers page show the figures.
What is the scale of the new streams?
The newest streams are batteries and magnets, and both are at the construction stage. USGS says construction of lithium battery recycling plants continued through 2025 and gives no recycled lithium volume. Rare earth recovery from magnets is covered on the magnet recycling page, which reports plans and early plants rather than established volumes. Treat any forecast of urban mining supply as a projection, not a measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What is urban mining?
Urban mining is the recovery of metals from products and waste that have reached the end of their life, such as batteries, vehicles, electronics and catalysts, instead of from ore. The USGS "old scrap" figures measure it.
Which metals are recovered most from used products?
Lead and nickel lead among those USGS reports for the United States. Secondary lead from old batteries equalled 70% of consumption in 2025 and scrap supplied about 60% of nickel, mostly from stainless steel.
How much platinum and palladium comes from used catalytic converters?
In the United States about 50,000 kilograms of palladium and 8,600 kilograms of platinum were recovered from automobile catalytic converters in 2025. Globally about 140,000 kilograms of palladium and platinum came from new and old scrap.
Can urban mining replace primary mining?
Not for most critical minerals yet. USGS reports no old gallium scrap recycled, limited rare earth recovery and negligible scrap recovery for manganese and niobium, while lead and nickel are already largely supplied by scrap.
Sources
Read on October 13, 2026. Figures on this page come from these documents; where a number is an estimate, the source says so.
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: lead, antimony, nickel and chromium. Other chapters at mcs2026-antimony.pdf, mcs2026-nickel.pdf and mcs2026-chromium.pdf
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: platinum-group metals
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: rhenium, vanadium, molybdenum, aluminum, tin, germanium and tellurium. Chapters read as PDFs; each is linked under the table
