Manganese

Steel’s silent partner and a rising battery metal. Manganese has made steel strong for over a century, and it is now becoming a key ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles.

Gabon is the world’s second-largest manganese producer, supplying around a quarter of all manganese mined.

Key facts

At a glance

Atomic number: 25
Density: 7.21 g/cm³
Melting point: 1,246 °C
Key ores: Pyrolusite, rhodochrosite
World mine output: ≈20 million t Mn (2025)
Main uses: Steel alloys, EV batteries, chemicals

Why it matters

Why manganese

Around nine-tenths of the world’s manganese still goes into steel, where it removes oxygen and sulphur and adds strength and hardness. Gabon’s Moanda deposit is one of the richest high-grade manganese deposits in the world.

The fastest-growing market is batteries. Battery makers are turning to manganese because it is abundant, low-cost and safe, which makes it an attractive way to cut back on scarcer nickel and cobalt.

Demand

Two markets

Traditional

Steel & alloys

Smelters turn manganese ore into silicomanganese and ferromanganese, which steel mills add to almost every tonne of steel they make. Demand follows construction, infrastructure and manufacturing.

Silicomanganese
Ferromanganese
Stainless & special steels

New growth

Electrification

Refined into high-purity manganese sulphate (HPMSM), manganese goes into lithium-ion battery cathodes. Manganese-rich chemistries such as NMC, LMFP and LMR are gaining ground in electric vehicles and grid storage.

High-purity manganese sulphate
NMC, LMFP & LMR cathodes
Grid-scale storage

Ore to market

From the ground to the buyer

Stage
Mined ore
30–50% Mn
Pyrolusite-rich ore mined in open pits. Gabon’s Moanda ore is among the highest grade in the world.
Stage
Lump & fines
37–46% Mn
Ore is crushed, washed and screened into high-grade (44%+) and medium-grade products.
Stage
Alloys
60–80% Mn
Smelters turn ore into silicomanganese and ferromanganese for steel mills. A growing share is refined into battery-grade manganese sulphate.

How it is priced

Manganese ore is priced per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu), meaning per 1% of manganese in a tonne. The key references are 44% and 37% Mn ore delivered to China.

Did you know

The story

The world’s oldest black paint

Long before steel, manganese was an artist’s material. Prehistoric painters ground black manganese oxide into pigment, and it still outlines the horses and bulls on the walls of France’s Lascaux cave, painted around 17,000 years ago.

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