Finding
The smaller the market, the more of it China refines
China refines about 96% of battery-grade manganese sulfate and 94% of battery graphite, against 74% of lithium and 47% of copper. Copper and nickel are large, old markets with refiners on several continents. Battery-grade manganese, anode graphite and magnet rare earths are small markets that grew with China's battery and magnet industries, and few companies elsewhere found them worth a plant.
Western refining is starting one plant at a time. Tesla's lithium refinery in Robstown, Texas, became operational in January 2026 as the first large spodumene-to-hydroxide plant in North America, rated at about 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide a year and now feeding the cathode plant at Giga Texas. It still runs on imported spodumene. For manganese, graphite and rare earths there is no equivalent at scale yet.
Refining also sets the qualification clock. A cathode or anode plant qualifies each chemical supplier batch by batch, so a new refinery takes a year or more of sampling before a cell maker will buy from it, on top of construction.
Refining by material
Seven refined materials
Each row links to the refinery listing for that material.
| Material | Refined product | China share | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manganese | High-purity manganese sulfate | 96% | Only a few plants outside China |
| Graphite | Spherical and synthetic anode graphite | 94% | Under Chinese export licensing since 2023 |
| Magnet rare earths | NdPr, Dy, Tb oxides and metals | 84% | Dy and Tb under licensing since April 2025 |
| Cobalt | Cobalt sulfate | 76% | DR Congo mines, China refines |
| Lithium | Lithium hydroxide and carbonate | 74% | Tesla Robstown, Texas: first large US hydroxide refinery |
| Copper | Cathode copper, rod, foil | 47% | Chile, Japan and the US also refine |
| Nickel | Nickel sulfate, MHP | 31% | Indonesia is the largest refiner |
The next step
From refined chemical to active material
Refined salts and oxides go next to cathode, anode and magnet plants, which are even more concentrated.
| Stage | What happens | Concentration |
|---|---|---|
| Cathode active material (CAM) | Refined salts become NMC, NCA, LFP and LMFP cathode powder | China about 85% |
| Cathode material plants | Plant listing for pCAM and CAM | Dataset page |
| Anode materials | Natural and synthetic graphite, silicon blends | China 90%+ |
| Anode material plants | Plant listing for anode active material | Dataset page |
| NdFeB magnets | Rare earth oxides become sintered magnets | China about 90% |
| Polysilicon | Metallurgical silicon becomes solar and chip-grade polysilicon | China about 95% |
Sources
Sources and scope
- Scope
- Refining of battery, magnet and conductor materials, and the processing step that follows
- Sources
- IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 and 2026; IEA via Fastmarkets for manganese sulfate; Tesla and press reporting on Robstown
- Updated
- October 2026