The Reagent Layer
Processing chemicals that make the supply chain work. The minerals get extracted, separated, and refined using chemistry that rarely appears in supply chain analysis. This is that chemistry.
The solvent that dissolves ore into metal. Nearly half the world's traded sulfur comes from the Persian Gulf.
No chip can be fabricated without it. China controls 62% of the fluorspar feedstock that makes it.
The chemical that extracts 90% of the world's gold. China makes 40–45% of global supply.
The organic chemicals that separate neodymium from praseodymium. China runs 85–91% of global rare earth separation capacity.
The final precipitation step in rare earth processing. Consumed every cycle, sourced 70% from China, absent from most supply chain risk maps.
The Reagent Layer covers industrial chemicals used in mineral extraction, separation, and refining. Prices where shown are China domestic benchmarks, verified and updated weekly. Contract-negotiated reagents have no public market index.