The steelmaker's metal: almost all of it goes into steel, and two African countries mine most of it.
Manganese is mined as ore and used mainly as an alloying and cleaning agent in steel: it removes sulphur and oxygen from molten steel and adds strength and hardness. Industry sources put steelmaking at around 90% of demand, and USGS notes that manganese has no satisfactory substitute in its major applications and that its consumption closely follows the steel industry. Steel mills rarely use the ore directly; most of it is first smelted into ferroalloys (ferromanganese and silicomanganese). A small but fast-growing remainder goes into batteries (as manganese sulphate for lithium-ion cathodes, and as electrolytic manganese dioxide for alkaline cells), and into chemicals, fertiliser and animal feed. The market therefore has three layers: ore, ferroalloys and refined products, each priced and traded differently.
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Designations are indicative equivalents. Always confirm the exact standard, edition and temper or form on the purchase order and the mill certificate.
Output is stated as contained manganese, not ore weight (about 2.3 t of 44% ore contain one tonne of manganese). South Africa mines about 38% of the world's manganese and Gabon about 25%, and with Ghana and Australia the top four supply about 81%. Ghana's output rose about 56% in 2025 (1.28 Mt to 2.0 Mt) and Gabon's about 8%. A mine in northern Australia that closed in 2024 after a tropical cyclone restarted in May 2025. China mines little relative to its steel industry, so it imports most of its ore. Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026.
USGS puts world manganese reserves at about 1.8 billion tonnes. Australia reports the most (580 Mt, or 110 Mt on the stricter JORC basis), followed by South Africa (550 Mt, which also holds an estimated 70% of world resources), Brazil (300 Mt), China (260 Mt), Gabon (61 Mt), India (34 Mt) and Ghana (13 Mt). Land-based resources are large but irregularly distributed. Reserve life is long, so supply is limited less by geology than by rail, port and power capacity, by ore grade, and by the economics of the ferroalloy smelters that buy it.
Ore is smelted with coke in submerged-arc electric furnaces into ferromanganese and silicomanganese, and this is where most of the energy and cost lie. Smelting is concentrated near steel mills and cheap power, so ore is shipped long distances: for example, USGS reports the United States imported its ore mainly from Gabon (64%), South Africa (24%) and Mexico (12%), while its ferromanganese came from Malaysia, Australia, Norway and South Africa, and silicomanganese from Georgia, South Africa, Australia and Malaysia. Refined products are made in separate, chemical routes: electrolytic manganese metal and manganese dioxide are produced by leaching ore and electrolysis, and battery-grade manganese sulphate by further purification, with China the dominant producer of electrolytic metal.
There is almost no recycling specific to manganese. USGS states that manganese is recycled incidentally as a constituent of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, that scrap recovery specifically for manganese is negligible, and that manganese is recovered along with iron from steel slag. Because the metal ends up inside recycled steel, supply is effectively tied to primary mining and smelting, which is part of why ore and ferroalloy prices follow the steel cycle so closely.
Two countries set the pace of the ore market. South Africa (the Kalahari Manganese Field in the Northern Cape) mines about 7.6 Mt of contained manganese a year and holds most of the world's resources, and Gabon about 5.0 Mt, mostly exported as high-grade ore. Ghana's rise to a 2.0 Mt producer in 2025 shows how quickly a new supplier can change the balance. For buyers, this means ore supply is exposed to the rail, port and power reliability of a few countries, and to their export and royalty policies. The market's reaction to oversupply was clear in 2025: USGS reports spot prices for 44% ore in China averaged 22% lower in the year to October 2025 than the 2024 annual average.
Manganese ore is priced per metric tonne unit (mtu): one mtu is 1% of a tonne, or 10 kg, of contained manganese, so a tonne of 44% ore holds 44 mtu. The benchmark is the price of 44% ore delivered (CIF) to China. USGS reports it averaged about $4.50 per mtu in 2025 (about $198 per tonne of ore), down from $5.53 in 2024 and $5.97 in 2022. Ore is sold as lump and fines, with lump usually earning a premium, and the price is adjusted for manganese content and penalised for phosphorus, silica, alumina and iron, so the assay matters as much as the headline price.
Ferroalloys are quoted per tonne of alloy (or per tonne of contained manganese) by region, with prices following ore costs, power costs and steel demand; high-carbon ferromanganese and silicomanganese are the volume products. Steel mills usually buy under contracts that reset monthly or quarterly. Battery-grade materials, electrolytic metal and manganese dioxide are sold by specification under contract, and prices are set largely between producers and customers. In every layer, buyers should specify the assay method, sampling and moisture basis, the umpire laboratory used if the parties disagree, and the delivery terms (Incoterm and port).
Manganese ore: grades, specifications, pricing and how it trades.
For manganese, say which layer you are buying: ore, ferroalloy or a refined product. For ore, agree the grade basis and penalty elements, price per mtu on a dry basis, and the weighing, sampling and assay procedure at both load and discharge ports. For ferroalloys, specify the grade, carbon and silicon limits and size range. Always confirm the origin, and check export duties and port logistics, because they affect landed cost as much as the headline price.
Talk to a SpecialistProduction and reserve figures are USGS estimates for 2025 unless stated. Figures are rounded and change with each annual revision.