Start With the Use
Choose something familiar such as a smartphone, electric vehicle, home, solar panel, battery, aircraft, or power grid.
Resource Discovery Tool
Resource Use Finder
Choose a product, technology, or industry and see the metals, minerals, and natural resources commonly used to make it work. Understand what each material does and why it matters.
Find Resources
Choose a Product or Industry
What Resources Does It Use?
Select an example below or use the dropdown. The finder will show some of the major natural resources commonly associated with that use.
Resource Use Results
Smartphones
Modern smartphones combine conductive metals, battery minerals, specialty materials, and precious metals in a compact electronic system.
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Key Resources
How It Works
Connecting Resources to the Things We Use
Modern products rarely depend on a single natural resource. They combine materials chosen for conductivity, strength, energy storage, heat resistance, magnetism, durability, and other properties.
Identify Key Materials
The finder highlights several resources commonly associated with major components and functions in that product or industry.
Follow the Resource
Continue into Earth Value Index profiles to understand where the resource comes from, what it is used for, and why supply matters.
Why This Matters
Everyday Technology Is Built on Natural Resources
Looking at products through their material inputs makes it easier to understand why resource demand, supply security, processing, and critical minerals matter to the wider economy.
Electric Vehicles
Copper carries electrical current, lithium supports battery chemistry, and other minerals contribute to motors, electronics, structural components, and energy storage.
Modern Homes
Homes rely on copper wiring, steel, aluminum, industrial minerals, glass, cement materials, insulation inputs, and many other resources.
Power Grids
Transmission networks depend heavily on conductive metals, structural materials, transformers, magnets, electrical steel, and specialized components.
Important Context
Material Use Varies by Product and Technology
The exact materials used can change by manufacturer, design, chemistry, region, model, production method, and technological generation.
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Not a Bill of Materials
The finder highlights important resource relationships rather than every material present in a finished product.
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Technology Changes
New battery chemistries, electronics designs, and manufacturing methods can change which resources are required.
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Substitution Happens
Manufacturers may replace one material with another because of cost, performance, availability, or supply risk.
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Recycling Matters
Some resource demand can be supplied by recycled materials rather than newly mined primary resources.
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Processing Matters
A mineral deposit may be far removed from the refined material eventually used in a finished product.
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Supply Chains Are Global
Mining, refining, manufacturing, component production, and final assembly may occur in different countries.
Related Tools
Continue Exploring Resources
Educational Use
The Resource Use Finder provides a simplified educational overview of materials commonly associated with products and industries. Actual material composition varies by manufacturer, technology, design, chemistry, production method, and region.
Earth Value Index
See the Resources Behind the Modern World
Follow the materials from mine to market and understand how metals, minerals, energy resources, and industrial materials support the products and infrastructure people use every day.