The Core Rule: Never Invent a Number
Every demand-share percentage, metal-intensity figure and country statistic on a Metal Applications page traces to a named, dated source. Where reliable data doesn't exist for a metal or an application, this site shows that plainly — "currently being developed" or "not yet available" — rather than filling the gap with an invented or rounded-off estimate.
Two Kinds of Overview Data
A metal's "Where is it used?" overview draws on two sources depending on what's available. Where a metal already has a real, sourced demand-by-sector breakdown (currently reused directly from Metal DNA's Demand Diversity dimension — itself sourced from bodies like the World Gold Council and the International Copper Study Group), that breakdown becomes the sector cards here. Where this site has gone further and built a full reference page for one specific application within that metal (currently Copper's Electric Vehicles and Silver's Solar), that sector links straight through to the deep page instead of just showing a percentage.
Why "Typical" Is Never a Single Universal Number
Real-world metal content in any product varies — by size, design, technology generation and manufacturer. Rather than present one falsely precise figure, every intensity value on this site shows a typical value alongside its real reported range, plus a plain-language note on what actually drives that variation (for example, drivetrain type for a vehicle, or cell technology for a solar panel).
Confidence Levels
High confidence marks a figure precisely and consistently reported by a primary industry body (for example, the Silver Institute's exact photovoltaic silver demand tonnage). Medium marks a figure that involved a modeling or rounding choice — for instance, taking a commonly-cited range's midpoint, or a demand-share estimate built from a secondary analysis rather than a primary institutional count. This site does not currently publish a Low-confidence application figure — a genuinely uncertain number is treated the same as an unavailable one.
Sources
Phase 1's two reference applications draw on the International Copper Association and IDTechEx (copper content by vehicle drivetrain), the IEA's Global EV Outlook (country EV adoption shares), the Silver Institute (solar's share of total silver demand and its multi-year growth), and Fraunhofer ISE / industry press coverage of silver-loading trends in solar-cell manufacturing. The exact publication and data year are shown alongside every figure on its page.
Update Frequency
This is a small, hand-maintained dataset (scripts/seed-metal-applications-data.php), reviewed
and re-sourced roughly annually — the same cadence as the Metal
Reserves section's USGS import and Metal Chain's own data. It is
never presented as a live feed.
Disclaimer
Metal Applications™ is an informational reference built from public data and named sources. Demand shares, intensity figures and trend labels are estimates derived from the cited sources and should not be treated as investment advice or a guaranteed forecast.
