# Benchmark Prices

What a Stockatomics benchmark price is: one price a month in US dollars per kg of contained element, or per kg of the commodity for industrial minerals, for every one of the 60 critical minerals.

Source: https://www.stockatomics.com/research/benchmark-prices

## What the price represents

- Monthly benchmarks: 60
- Currency: USD (every price)

- **Monthly**: One price for each month, reflecting what traded in that month.
- **Per kg contained**: The price of the element contained in the traded material, so ore, concentrate, chemicals and metal can all be compared on one basis. Industrial minerals, such as barite, potash, phosphate rock and metallurgical coal, are priced per kg of the commodity itself.
- **Real transactions**: Built from official US trade data, so the price reflects what was actually paid in the month rather than a quote or an offer.
- **In US dollars**: Every price is in US dollars. Tonnages valued at the benchmark, such as market size or a company’s output, are in contained tonnes as well.
- **All imports**: Shown alongside the benchmark on a mineral’s price chart in the Terminal: the average price of all the month’s imports together, across every grade.
- **Premium-priced imports**: Shipments priced well above the benchmark, typically higher-purity or specialty material. Shown in the Terminal as their own series on the price chart, and available as a view in Import origins.

## The current month

On every [commodity price page](https://www.stockatomics.com/commodities), the benchmark price is shown as of the current month, **October 2026**, and its price chart runs to the current month and ends with a marker at the latest price. Elsewhere, such as the commodity boards and cards, the price is shown without a date.

## More price data in the Terminal

The benchmark’s companion series, in the Stockatomics Terminal.

In the Stockatomics Terminal (https://www.stockatomics.com/terminal/research/benchmark-prices, sign-in required):

- All imports and premium-priced imports: The month’s average import price across every grade, and the premium-priced shipments, beside the benchmark.
- Import origins by country: Where US imports come from each month, by country and grade.

## FAQ

### What is a Stockatomics benchmark price?

One price a month in US dollars per kg of contained element, or per kg of the commodity for industrial minerals, for every critical mineral, shown as of the current month.

### What does “per kg contained” mean?

The price of the element contained in the traded material, so ore, concentrate, chemicals and metal can all be compared on one basis. Industrial minerals, such as barite, potash, phosphate rock and metallurgical coal, are priced per kg of the commodity itself.

### Is the benchmark price a quote?

No. It is built from official US trade data, so the price reflects what was actually paid in the month rather than a quote or an offer.

## More research

The full method is set out in [our research paper](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/constraint-transmission-framework).

- [The Stockatomics Model](https://www.stockatomics.com/research): what Stockatomics measures and where the data comes from.
- [Supply Elasticity (SES)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/supply-elasticity): How hard it is for supply to respond when demand rises.
- [Supply Concentration (C)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/supply-concentration): How few producing countries hold world supply.
- [Demand Momentum (DM)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/demand-momentum): The demand growth a mineral inherits from the sectors that use it.
- [Company Exposure (CMCS)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/company-exposure): How much of a listed company’s output is in constrained, concentrated, fast-growing minerals.
- [Stock vs Mineral Performance](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/stock-vs-mineral): How listed companies performed against their minerals’ benchmark prices.
- [AI Infrastructure Index](https://www.stockatomics.com/ai-infrastructure-index): What the hardware behind AI costs, month by month.