Fluorspar is a valuable commodity, with a global market value of approximately US$2 billion and an expected demand of 6Mt per annum by 2015. In addition, fluorspar’s value lies in the multiple downstream levels that can significantly uplift it, and the downstream market value is worth US$112 billion.
Countries like China and Mexico are the leading global producers and produce about 80% of total production output. China and Europe are also the largest global consumers with an estimated 20% of consumption.
South Africa is known to have the largest fluorspar reserves globally, and the export market is primarily to Europe for hydrogen fluoride beneficiation and the production of aluminum fluoride. Due to the facilities for downstream products being overseas, these products are re-imported at a higher cost.