Charted: How Many Years of Supply Life Are Left for Commodities?

Published

13 hours ago

June 24, 2026

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Cody Good

Graphics & Design

Akhila Ayyalasomayajula

This graphic highlights which commodities are running out of supply life between 2020 and 2025. It shows rare earths losing nearly 300 years of supply and lithium losing roughly 130 years of supply in the last five years. It also shows that uranium, oil, natural gas, cobalt, copper, silver, and gold all remain relatively flat.

Charted: How Many Years of Supply Life Are Left for Commodities?

Key Takeaways

Rare earth metals had the largest reduction in supply life, losing nearly 300 years worth of supply between 2020 and 2025.
Lithium (-127 years) and uranium (-31 years) followed rare earths, while other commodities like oil & gas, copper, and gold all remained relatively stable.

In just five years, the world has reduced the supply life of rare earth metals by nearly 300 years.

This graphic, in partnership with Global X Canada, is the first of three graphics in the Investing in Commodities series. It shows how the supply life of different critical commodities has changed between 2020-2025 using data from the USGS, OPEC, and NEA.

Rare Earths With the Steepest Drop

Rare earth metals recorded the biggest change between 2020 and 2025. Their estimated supply life fell from 500 years to 218 years, a drop of 282 years.

Critical Commodity	2020	2025
Rare Earth Metals	500	218
Lithium	255	128
Uranium	121	90
Oil	61	58
Natural Gas	51	51
Cobalt	50	39
Copper	42	43
Silver	21	23
Gold	17	20

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries (2021 – 2026); OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin; Nuclear Energy Agency

For uranium, the 2020 and 2025 values are estimated from 2021 and 2023 NEA data points.

Lithium supply life declined by 127 years, while uranium had a smaller drop of 31 years. These drops matter for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and defense technologies that all rely on steady rare earths and other critical minerals.

Traditional Commodities More Stable

The sharpest supply-life shifts centered on critical minerals, not legacy commodities. Cobalt is the lone critical mineral with moderate change, having a decline of 11 years.

For legacy commodities, oil had a modest reduction of 4 years while the precious metals, silver and gold, saw slight increases in supply while others stayed essentially flat.

Investing in Commodities

For investors, shrinking supply life can signal where demand growth may collide with limited resource availability. It can also highlight geopolitical risk when supply remains heavily concentrated in just a handful of countries.

Commodity ETFs can offer diversified access without selecting individual producers. As demand grows, Global X Canada’s ETFs may help investors position around long-term resource trends.

To learn more, explore the Global X All-In-One Commodity Producers Equity ETF (COMX). Minimize the guesswork of trying to pick which commodity segment may outperform each year.

See how COMX offers diversified access across precious metals, energy, and base metals producers.

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