Mining
Prove Your Metal: Top 10 Strongest Metals on Earth
Prove Your Metal: Top 10 Strongest Metals on Earth
The use of metals and the advancement of human civilization have gone hand in hand — and throughout the ages, each metal has proved its worth based on its properties and applications.
Today’s visualization from Viking Steel Structures outlines the 10 strongest metals on Earth and their applications.
What are Metals?
Metals are solid materials that are typically hard, shiny, malleable, and ductile, with good electrical and thermal conductivity. But not all metal is equal, which makes their uses as varied as their individual properties and benefits.
The periodic table below presents a simple view of the relationship between metals, nonmetals, and metalloids, which you can easily identify by color.
While 91 of the 118 elements of the periodic table are considered to be metals, only a few of them stand out as the strongest.
What Makes a Metal Strong?
The strength of a metal depends on four properties:
- Tensile Strength: How well a metal resists being pulled apart
- Compressive Strength: How well a material resists being squashed together
- Yield Strength: How well a rod or beam of a particular metal resists bending and permanent damage
- Impact Strength: The ability to resist shattering upon impact with another object or surface
Here are the top 10 metals based on these properties.
The Top 10 Strongest Metals
Rank | Type of Metal | Example Use | Atomic Weight | Melting Point |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Tungsten | Making bullets and missiles | 183.84 u | 3422°C / 6192 °F |
#2 | Steel | Construction of railroads, roads, other infrastructure and appliances | n/a | 1371°C / 2500°F |
#3 | Chromium | Manufacturing stainless steel | 51.96 u | 1907°C / 3465°F, |
#4 | Titanium | In the aerospace Industry, as a lightweight material with strength | 47.87 u | 1668°C / 3032°F |
#5 | Iron | Used to make bridges, electricity, pylons, bicycle chains, cutting tools and rifle barrels | 55.85 u | 1536°C / 2800°F |
#6 | Vanadium | 80% of vanadium is alloyed with iron to make steel shock and corrosion resistance | 50.942 u | 1910°C / 3470°F |
#7 | Lutetium | Used as catalysts in petroleum production. | 174.96 u | 1663 °C / 3025°F |
#8 | Zirconium | Used in nuclear power stations. | 91.22 u | 1850°C / 3.362°F |
#9 | Osmium | Added to platinum or indium to make them harder. | 190.2 u | 3000°C / 5,400°F |
#10 | Tantalum | Used as an alloy due to its high melting point and anti-corrosion. | 180.94 u | 3,017°C / 5462°F |
Out of the Forge and into Tech: Metals for the Future
While these metals help to forge the modern world, there is a new class of metals that are set to create a new future.
Rare Earth elements (REEs) are a group of metals do not rely on their strength, but instead their importance in applications in new technologies, including those used for green energy.
Metal | Uses |
---|---|
Neodymium | Magnets containing neodymium are used in green technologies such as the manufacture of wind turbines and hybrid cars. |
Lanthanum | Used in catalytic converters in cars, enabling them to run at high temperatures |
Cerium | This element is used in camera and telescope lenses. |
Praseodymium | Used to create strong metals for use in aircraft engines. |
Gadolinium | Used in X-ray and MRI scanning systems, and also in television screens. |
Yttrium, terbium, europium | Making televisions and computer screens and other devices that have visual displays. |
If the world is going to move towards a more sustainable and efficient future, metals—both tough and smart—are going to be critical. Each one will serve a particular purpose to build the infrastructure and technology for the next generation.
Our ability to deploy technology with the right materials will test the world’s mettle to meet the challenges of tomorrow—so choose wisely.
Uranium
Charted: Global Uranium Reserves, by Country
We visualize the distribution of the world’s uranium reserves by country, with 3 countries accounting for more than half of total reserves.
Charted: Global Uranium Reserves, by Country
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
There can be a tendency to believe that uranium deposits are scarce from the critical role it plays in generating nuclear energy, along with all the costs and consequences related to the field.
But uranium is actually fairly plentiful: it’s more abundant than gold and silver, for example, and about as present as tin in the Earth’s crust.
We visualize the distribution of the world’s uranium resources by country, as of 2021. Figures come from the World Nuclear Association, last updated on August 2023.
Ranked: Uranium Reserves By Country (2021)
Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada have the largest shares of available uranium resources—accounting for more than 50% of total global reserves.
But within these three, Australia is the clear standout, with more than 1.7 million tonnes of uranium discovered (28% of the world’s reserves) currently. Its Olympic Dam mine, located about 600 kilometers north of Adelaide, is the the largest single deposit of uranium in the world—and also, interestingly, the fourth largest copper deposit.
Despite this, Australia is only the fourth biggest uranium producer currently, and ranks fifth for all-time uranium production.
Country | Share of Global Reserves | Uranium Reserves (Tonnes) |
---|---|---|
🇦🇺 Australia | 28% | 1.7M |
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 13% | 815K |
🇨🇦 Canada | 10% | 589K |
🇷🇺 Russia | 8% | 481K |
🇳🇦 Namibia | 8% | 470K |
🇿🇦 South Africa | 5% | 321K |
🇧🇷 Brazil | 5% | 311K |
🇳🇪 Niger | 5% | 277K |
🇨🇳 China | 4% | 224K |
🇲🇳 Mongolia | 2% | 145K |
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 2% | 131K |
🇺🇦 Ukraine | 2% | 107K |
🌍 Rest of World | 9% | 524K |
Total | 100% | 6M |
Figures are rounded.
Outside the top three, Russia and Namibia both have roughly the same amount of uranium reserves: about 8% each, which works out to roughly 470,000 tonnes.
South Africa, Brazil, and Niger all have 5% each of the world’s total deposits as well.
China completes the top 10, with a 3% share of uranium reserves, or about 224,000 tonnes.
A caveat to this is that current data is based on known uranium reserves that are capable of being mined economically. The total amount of the world’s uranium is not known exactly—and new deposits can be found all the time. In fact the world’s known uranium reserves increased by about 25% in the last decade alone, thanks to better technology that improves exploration efforts.
Meanwhile, not all uranium deposits are equal. For example, in the aforementioned Olympic Dam, uranium is recovered as a byproduct of copper mining occurring at the same site. In South Africa, it emerges as a byproduct during treatment of ores in the gold mining process. Orebodies with high concentrations of two substances can increase margins, as costs can be shared for two different products.
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