Helium

Primary uses. superconducting magnet cryogenics; pressurizing/purging systems; controlled atmospheres.

The chain — from the ground to the buyer

A critical material passes through distinct stages, and the country that leads each stage is often different — that gap is what this atlas exists to show. Each layer comes from a different public source with its own vintage, labelled below; shares are % of the world total.

● Reserves — where it could come from

Reserves are the deposits known to exist and economically worth mining — the long-run ceiling on supply, distinct from what is actually produced today. Helium's reserves are moderately concentrated: 🇶🇦 Qatar holds the most (28%), ahead of 🇺🇸 United States (23%) and 🇩🇿 Algeria (22%). At today's extraction rate the known reserves would last roughly 216 years, so scarcity is not the binding constraint — access, capital and processing capacity are. Tellingly, the country sitting on the most ore (🇶🇦 Qatar) is not the one extracting it (🇺🇸 United States) — geology sets the ceiling, but capacity and policy decide who actually supplies the market. USGS 2024 · reserves as of 2023

● Mined — where it is dug up today

Mining is where ore leaves the ground — the stage most people equate with “the source”, though it is rarely where the supply risk actually concentrates. Output is concentrated: 🇺🇸 United States supplies 46%, with 🇶🇦 Qatar (39%) next. It out-produces reserve-richer 🇶🇦 Qatar while holding just 23% of reserves itself — supply power at this stage is built on installed capacity, not geology. USGS 2024 · 2023 production

● Refined / processed — where it becomes usable metal

Refining / processing converts ore into the metal or compound buyers actually purchase; it concentrates in fewer hands than mining and sits at the buyer's doorstep, which is why it is usually the true chokepoint. A country-level processing breakdown is not publicly reported for helium — only the leading refiner is known, which itself signals how opaque this stage is. leading refiner only — fuller breakdown not publicly reported

not available

● Recycling & substitutability — the mitigants (EU CRM)

1% of supply comes from recycling end-of-life products. Substitutability is high — few or no alternatives, so a disruption bites hard.

● Traded — who ships it

Actual bilateral trade of the traded form, reconciled from UN Comtrade / CEPII BACI. Pick a year below — 2018–2024 measured, 2025* nowcast, 2026** directional scenario. The full 2002–2026 range is on the interactive atlas.

Context

A diversified gas dependency: Algeria ~37%, Qatar ~31% and the US ~21%. The naive view splits across Germany and France; the origins are North African, Gulf and American.

Every figure on this page is computed from out/data.json and out/flows_2024.json by build_profiles.py — no hand-entered numbers.