ROOT / ELEMENTS // ELEMENTS
// Elements · decoded · deep-research pass
Elements, decoded.
The periodic table as a frontier index — abundance, price and criticality.
CURATED INDEX◊ confidence: High
// the signal · what the data says
Every frontier technology reduces to elements: silicon for chips, lithium/nickel/cobalt for batteries, gallium and germanium for advanced semiconductors, neodymium/dysprosium for magnets, uranium for nuclear. Abundance and supply concentration — not chemistry alone — set strategic criticality.
// comparison · every entry, benchmarked & annotated
| Name | Maker | Abundance (ppm) | Price ($/kg) | Criticality (1-5) | Use |
|---|
| Silicon | Element | 282000 | 2 | 2 | Chips/PV |
| ◊ 2nd most abundant crustal element |
| Copper | Element | 60 | 9 | 3 | Wiring/grid |
| ◊ Electrification backbone |
| Neodymium | Element | 38 | 80 | 4 | Magnets |
| ◊ Rare-earth, China-concentrated |
| Lithium | Element | 20 | 15 | 5 | Batteries |
| ◊ Battery-critical, price volatile |
| Gallium | Element | 19 | 400 | 5 | Chips/RF |
| ◊ China export-controlled |
| Uranium | Element | 2.7 | 130 | 4 | Nuclear |
| ◊ Fission fuel |
// leaderboard · Abundance (ppm)
01Silicon282000
02Copper60
03Neodymium38
04Lithium20
05Gallium19
06Uranium2.7
// sources & where to verify
// full index, per-field sourcing & CSV export [ AUTHENTICATE → ]
◊ Deep-research pass, mid-2026. Headline/volatile figures web-verified against the sources above; engineering specs from primary/vendor data. Green = best value in column · confidence: High · verify volatile figures (prices, counts, live feeds) before publishing.