Top 25 Countries by Nickel Mine Production, 2025
Nickel mine output in 2023: the global leaders and why the ranking matters
Nickel is a dual-use industrial metal. Most mined nickel still ends up in stainless steel (strength and corrosion resistance), while a smaller but strategically important share is upgraded into battery-grade nickel for some EV chemistries and energy storage. Because these end uses require different forms of nickel (from ferronickel for steel to high-purity intermediates for chemicals), the geography of mining is not the same as the geography of processing.
The ranking below uses the latest consolidated country figures published by the British Geological Survey (BGS) for 2023, reported as tonnes of nickel metal content in mine production.
A key interpretation rule: mine production ≠ refined supply. Countries can rank high in mining but export ore/concentrate, while others can rank high in refining by importing feedstock. This distinction becomes central for nickel because laterite ores (common in the tropics) often need capital-intensive processing routes.
Table 1 — Top 10 countries by nickel mine production (2023)
| Rank | Country | Mine production (kt Ni) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | 2,030.0 |
| 2 | Philippines | 387.0 |
| 3 | Russia | 256.3 |
| 4 | New Caledonia | 231.2 |
| 5 | Canada | 158.7 |
| 6 | Australia | 149.1 |
| 7 | China | 112.6 |
| 8 | Brazil | 72.4 |
| 9 | Colombia | 42.4 |
| 10 | Finland | 41.9 |
Bar chart shows the Top 10 producers by nickel mine output in 2023 (kt Ni, metal content). Values may be slightly rounded for display.
Full ranking and concentration: why nickel supply is “top-heavy”
Nickel production is unusually concentrated. Unlike bulk commodities where dozens of countries contribute meaningful volumes, nickel mining is dominated by a handful of ore provinces. Two geological families matter: laterites (often tropical, near-surface, typically higher-volume but more complex to upgrade) and sulfides (often higher-grade concentrates but increasingly scarce and deeper). This split helps explain why the same countries tend to appear both in the mining ranking and in the global processing story.
The list below uses BGS country values for 2023. In that year, only a limited number of countries report quantified nickel mine production, so the “Top 100” format is not meaningful for nickel: the “full” list effectively covers all reporting producers in the dataset.
A practical way to read the ranking: once the largest producer is included, the remaining producers collectively define the “depth” of diversification. A steep drop after the top positions signals higher exposure to disruptions, policy shifts, or processing bottlenecks in the leading hubs.
Table 2 — Full ranking (all reporting countries) by nickel mine production (2023)
| Rank | Country | Mine production (kt Ni) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | 2,030.0 |
| 2 | Philippines | 387.0 |
| 3 | Russia | 256.3 |
| 4 | New Caledonia | 231.2 |
| 5 | Canada | 158.7 |
| 6 | Australia | 149.1 |
| 7 | China | 112.6 |
| 8 | Brazil | 72.4 |
| 9 | Colombia | 42.4 |
| 10 | Finland | 41.9 |
| 11 | Madagascar | 38.9 |
| 12 | Cuba | 37.9 |
| 13 | Papua New Guinea | 33.6 |
| 14 | South Africa | 29.8 |
| 15 | Côte d’Ivoire | 26.3 |
| 16 | Guatemala | 20.3 |
| 17 | Turkey | 18.4 |
| 18 | Dominican Republic | 17.2 |
| 19 | United States | 17.0 |
| 20 | Zimbabwe | 16.3 |
| 21 | Myanmar | 8.0 |
| 22 | Zambia | 8.0 |
| 23 | Solomon Islands | 1.1 |
| 24 | Poland | 0.8 |
| 25 | Albania | 0.6 |
| 26 | Norway | 0.3 |
| 27 | Kosovo | 0.0 |
Concentration curve (Pareto): how fast the global total accumulates
The bars show each country’s mine output (kt Ni) in descending order, while the line shows the cumulative share of the 2023 world total. Axis labels may be abbreviated on smaller screens to preserve readability.
Mining vs processing hubs: where nickel is upgraded
Nickel supply chains are shaped by a second layer: smelter/refinery production. This category captures refined nickel plus nickel in ferronickel and other intermediate products. The result is a visible “hub effect”: some economies produce much more refined nickel than they mine domestically, because they import ore or intermediates and operate large processing capacity.
Table 3 — Selected countries: mine output vs smelter/refinery output (2023)
| Country | Mine (kt Ni) | Smelter/refinery (kt Ni) |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 2,030.0 | 1,410.0 |
| China | 112.6 | 970.0 |
| Russia | 256.3 | 156.0 |
| Canada | 158.7 | 130.0 |
| Australia | 149.1 | 92.3 |
| New Caledonia | 231.2 | 71.9 |
| Finland | 41.9 | 90.9 |
| Norway | 0.3 | 95.0 |
| Brazil | 72.4 | 57.0 |
| Colombia | 42.4 | 38.7 |
| Madagascar | 38.9 | 36.0 |
| South Africa | 29.8 | 39.6 |
| Dominican Republic | 17.2 | 17.8 |
| Myanmar | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Cuba | 37.9 | 13.7 |
Scatter plot compares 2023 mine output (x-axis) with 2023 smelter/refinery output (y-axis) for selected countries. Points above the diagonal (conceptually) indicate net processing hubs relative to domestic mining.
What the 2023 nickel ranking implies for industry, trade, and risk
In 2023, the nickel market combined two structural features that rarely coexist at this scale: extreme concentration in mining and high leverage of processing hubs. The concentration comes mainly from a single, very large producer and a short second tier, while the hub effect appears when refining capacity is located in a different set of countries than the raw ore endowment.
This matters because disruptions propagate differently across the chain. A disruption in a major mine region reduces global ore availability. A disruption in a major processing hub can reduce deliverable refined nickel even if mines elsewhere remain stable, because intermediate material must be upgraded, blended, and converted to meet downstream specifications.
Policy takeaway — key implications of the 2023 structure
- Concentration is dominated by the top producer: when one country supplies more than half of global mine output, the world total becomes sensitive to its domestic investment cycle, permitting, and downstream integration choices.
- Diversification is shallow: even a broad “Top N” list adds limited diversification because cumulative shares rise very quickly. This is visible in the Pareto curve and in the Top-10 share of global output.
- Mining and refining are different maps: some countries refine far more nickel than they mine domestically (hub effect), while others mine large volumes with a smaller domestic refining footprint.
- Laterite-heavy supply raises conversion importance: when a large share of output comes from laterites, the availability of conversion capacity and compatible technologies becomes a strategic constraint, not just ore tonnage.
- ESG and permitting can shift the cost curve: nickel is frequently associated with land-use, tailings, and energy-intensity trade-offs; policy and standards can re-rank competitiveness even if geology is unchanged.
Table 4 — Concentration metrics (2023)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| World mine production (BGS total) | 3,756,000 tonnes Ni |
| Top 1 share (Indonesia) | ≈ 54.0% |
| Top 3 share (Indonesia + Philippines + Russia) | ≈ 71.2% |
| Top 5 share | ≈ 81.6% |
| Top 10 share | ≈ 92.7% |
| HHI (approx., using all reporting producers) | ≈ 3,166 (high concentration) |
Shares and HHI are computed from the same 2023 country list shown in this article and use the BGS world total for internal consistency. Minor differences from other publications can arise from scope (mine vs metal-in-ore vs refined), timing, or revisions.
Primary data sources and technical notes
- British Geological Survey (BGS) — World Mineral Production 2019–2023: country mine production of nickel (tonnes of metal content) and smelter/refinery nickel output for 2019–2023.
- BGS release note (2025): context about the publication cycle and coverage of the 2019–2023 mineral production volume.
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) — Nickel statistics & information: background on nickel supply chains, markets, and official references.
- International Nickel Study Group (INSG) — World Nickel Factbook 2024: industry context on nickel mining footprint and market structure.
- World Mining Data 2025 (Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance): additional long-run mining context and commodity overview tables.
Download dataset & charts (Nickel mine production, 2023)
Archive includes CSV tables, an Excel workbook, and PNG chart images used in this article.
