Dem. Rep. Korea
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Dem. Rep. Korea mined 2.3% (USGS) of the world's tungsten in 2025 (estimated).
2.3%
of the world's tungsten mining in 2025 (estimated), according to USGS
#4 in tungsten miningANNUAL 2025
Materials with a production share
2
with a mining or refining share on record
Sites on record
1
Mines and plants in the open sources. Coverage is partial.
Exports of the ten materials
$31M
2024; most of it tungsten; 2 partner countries
Grid emissions intensity
341gCO2e/kWh
2024
Overview
What it produces
Share of world output, per material and stage. Each bar is one source's figure; where two sources report the same stage, both are shown and never blended. A full-width bar would be 100%.
Key facts
- Country code
- PRK
- Mining area, all commodities
- 25 km² (2019; rank 92 of 144)
- Named in the sources as
- Korea, North; Dem. People's Rep. of Korea
Map
- Dem. Rep. Korea
- Mine or brine operation
- Processing site
Sites are those in the open sources. A site missing here is missing from the sources, not from the world.
Sites on record · 1
1 of 1 shown
One entry per site. Where two sources describe the same site, the atlas lists the record of the source it ranks higher.
Country in context
Tungsten: Mine production, 2025 (estimated). All rows come from the same table.
| Country | metric tons | Share of world | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korea, NorthThis country | 2 000 | 2.3 % | |
| ChinaLargest producer in the table | 67 000 | 78.7 % | |
| World totalWorld total as the source gives it | 85 000 | – |
Supply chain
Every figure the sources give for this country, its trade partners per material, and where its sites are.
Production, refining and reserves
The latest year of each series. Share is of the series total: the larger of the source world total and the sum of its rows. Rank counts only the countries that have a number in that series.
| Series | Amount | Share of world | Rank | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphite: Mine production2025 (estimated) · USGS MCS 2026 · rank 8 of 18 | 8 000 t | 0.4 % | ||
| Graphite: Reserves2025 · USGS MCS 2026 · rank 12 of 15 | 2 000 000 t | 0.6 % | ||
| Tungsten: Mine production2025 (estimated) · USGS MCS 2026 · rank 4 of 11 | 2 000 t | 2.3 % | ||
| Tungsten: Reserves2025 · USGS MCS 2026 · rank 6 of 8 | 29 000 t | 0.6 % |
Trade partners
1 recorded flow, 2024
- Recorded trade flow; a thicker line is a larger value
- Dem. Rep. Korea
Lines join the middle of each country. They are not shipping routes.
| Partner | Material | Year | Value, US$ | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Export toChina | TungstenMine | 2024 | $31M |
Reconciled customs data (CEPII BACI), by value. The data holds only the largest flows of each material, so this is not the country’s full trade.
1 sites, deposits and projects on record are listed with the map in the Overview →
Money
What the trade data and the World Bank record in money terms. Every value is a reported figure with its own year.
All recorded trade flows of 2024 under the customs codes that isolate one of the ten materials, by value (CEPII BACI, reconciled estimates, current US dollars). Codes that mix several materials are left out, so trade in those materials is understated; gallium and germanium have no usable code at all. Each material lists its five largest partners. Why trade data blurs some materials
The economy around mining
World Bank indicators. Each has its own latest year, shown next to the value; mineral rents are often several years old.
GDP (current US$)
No data yet
Mineral rents (% of GDP)
No data yet
Ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports)
No data yet
Government revenue from extractives
No data yet. Dem. Rep. Korea has no EITI summary record with a government total. Countries report only if they implement the EITI Standard; a missing record does not mean there is no such revenue.
Investment pipeline
announced figuresPlanned and under-construction projects in Dem. Rep. Korea with a publicly announced capital cost, public financial backing, or both. Each line is one statement by the named publisher on the given date; the atlas adds nothing to it.
No data yet. The atlas has read no announcement of this kind for a project in Dem. Rep. Korea. The list is short and hand-read; a missing project is missing from the list, not from the world.
A short, hand-read list, not a census: 19 projects in all. Announced amounts are not spending, a letter of interest or a conditional commitment is not a loan, and amounts stay in the currency of the announcement.
Public support instruments
Stockpiles, price floors, offtake and purchasing programmes and public funds of Dem. Rep. Korea's government, as dated policy events of the type "public support". Each is one statement by its publisher.
No data yet. The atlas has read no public support instrument of Dem. Rep. Korea's government. The list is short and hand-read.
These figures are informational, not financial advice.
Sustainability
Four indicators, the same on every profile. Each is a figure with its unit, year and source, or a plain statement that there is none.
Carbon
Emissions intensity of the country's electricity grid.
341gCO2e/kWh
Higher than 38% of the other 208 countries with a grid figure.
- It describes the national grid, not mining or refining. Sites may run on their own power.
Water
Share of the country's mine sites on record that lie in high or extremely high baseline water stress.
0%of mine sites on record
No world percentile: the number of sites on record differs too much between countries to compare them.
- 0 of 1 sites with a class (1 mine and brine sites on record).
- Counted by site, not by tonnage: it is not a share of production.
- "Arid and Low Water Use" is a class of its own in the source and is not counted as high.
Land
Land visibly used by mining in the country, every commodity together.
25km²
Higher than 36% of the other 143 countries with a mapped mining area.
- Rank 92 of 144 countries by area.
- Mapped from satellite images for all mining in a country. It cannot be attributed to one material or one site.
Circularity
Recycling's share of demand.
Not available per country: recycling rates in the atlas are published per material, for the EU as a whole.
There is no overall score: the four figures measure different things and are not added up. How to read these figures
Risks & policy
Export controls in force
Compiled by USGS, effective January 2026. Not a live feed.
USGS Table 4 lists no export control by this country for the materials in the atlas.
Chokepoints at sea
The atlas has no record of which minerals pass through which sea passage, so no chokepoint figure is attached to this profile. Current ship counts for the main passages are on the Live page. Open the Live page
Gaps
What the atlas is missing for Dem. Rep. Korea
Computed from the data. Each line names a record that exists and one that does not. It marks missing data, not missing industry.
- Listed as a graphite producer (0.4% of world output; Mine production, 2025), but no mine is on record.
- A graphite producer (0.4% of world output; Mine production, 2025), but no site record names an owner or operator.
- Listed as a tungsten producer (2.3% of world output; Mine production, 2025), but no mine is on record.
- A tungsten producer (2.3% of world output; Mine production, 2025), but no site record names an owner or operator.
- No World Bank indicator (GDP, mineral rents, ores and metals in exports) for this country.
- Trade is partial by design: the atlas holds only each material's largest flows. 1 of them name this country.
Sources
Every source this profile uses, with its licence, the years its figures describe and how sure the figures are. Each chip on the profile opens the single record.
- USGS MCS 2026 ↗22 records used
- Licence
- CC0-1.0
- As of
- 2025
- Confidence
- Reported · Estimated
- CEPII BACI 202601 ↗3 records used
- Licence
- Etalab Open Licence 2.0
- As of
- 2024
- Confidence
- Estimated
- Ember Yearly Electricity Data ↗1 record used
- Licence
- CC-BY-4.0
- As of
- 2024
- Confidence
- Reported
- Maus et al. 2022 (mining areas v2) ↗1 record used
- Licence
- CC-BY-SA-4.0
- As of
- 2019
- Confidence
- Estimated
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass) ↗1 record used
- Licence
- ODbL-1.0
- As of
- 2026
- Confidence
- Estimated
- WRI Aqueduct 4.0 ↗1 record used
- Licence
- CC-BY-4.0
- As of
- 2023
- Confidence
- Estimated
The mining-area figure comes from a share-alike source (CC-BY-SA-4.0). It is kept in its own file under that licence, apart from the rest of the atlas's data.
History & talk
Revision history and discussion are coming soon.
Every change to a figure will be listed here with its source, its credit and its review, and each profile will have a place to discuss it. Until then the data changes only when a source is updated, and every figure links to that source.
What we don't know yet
No open source we may use gives these figures. Nothing is estimated to fill them. If you know a public source, add it.
- Mining companies headquartered here: Wikidata tags none. Its coverage is uneven, so this is a gap in the tagging, not a finding.Add data: Mining companies headquartered here: Wikidata tags none. Its coverage is uneven, so this is a gap in the tagging, not a finding.
- Import dependence: no open per-country series is loaded yet.Add data: Import dependence: no open per-country series is loaded yet.
- Recycling rates: Eurostat publishes them for the EU as a whole, not for one country.Add data: Recycling rates: Eurostat publishes them for the EU as a whole, not for one country.