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92 Examples of Raw Materials

John Spacey, updated on January 25, 2024

A raw material is a relatively unprocessed material that is a basic economic input. These include minerals, metals, forest products, agricultural products, chemicals and natural resources that are viewed as foundational inputs. All products, buildings and hard infrastructure are ultimately made from raw materials. Likewise, services, utilities and processes often depend on raw materials such that they underpin most economic activity. The following are examples of major raw materials.

Abrasives	Almonds
Aluminium	Bamboo
Bauxite	Beans
Butter	Cement
Chromium	Clay
Cobalt	Cocoa
Coffee	Commodity Chemicals
Construction Aggregate (sand, gravel, crushed stone etc..)	Copper
Corn	Cotton
Diamond	Diatomite
Dyes	Feldspar
Fish	Fruit Juices
Fruits	Gemstones
Glass / Silica	Gold
Graphite	Gravel
Gypsum	Honey
Iron	Lime
Limestone	Lithium
Lumber	Magnesium
Manganese	Marble
Meet	Metal Alloys
Milk	Millet
Molasses	Molybdenum
Natural Gas	Natural Rubber (latex)
Nickel	Nitrogen
Nuts	Oats
Palladium	Peanuts
Peat	Petroleum
Phosphate Rock	Pigments
Plastics	Platinum
Potash	Quartz Crystal
Rare Earths	Rice
Rocks	Salt
Sand	Silicon
Silk	Silver
Soda Ash	Sorghum
Soybeans	Spices
Stainless Steel	Steel
Stone	Sugar
Sulfur	Synthetic Fibers
Synthetic Rubber	Talc
Tea	Tin
Titanium	Vegetable Juices
Vegetable Oils	Vegetables
Water	Wheat
Wool	Zinc

Metals

Metals are elements that demonstrate metallic bonding and have common properties such as high luster, conductivity, malleability, ductility, melting point and density. These are an important type of mineral raw material that have broad applications in areas such as construction, technology and consumer goods.

Minerals

Inorganic naturally occurring materials that are commercially extracted and refined. These are broadly used in everything from technology to fertilizer.

Woods

Woods are used at scale by the construction industry and to produce goods such as furniture. They are also used to produce paper, cardboard and boxes.

Fibers

Long strands of material that are used to make textiles and other products such as paper.

Food Ingredients

Food ingredients such as vegetables can also be viewed as raw materials. These are mostly organic materials that are grown or harvested in the wild.

Construction Materials

Raw materials used by the construction industry at scale.

Discussion

In some cases, raw materials are processed and/or manufactured. For example, petrochemicals are used to make plastic but from the perspective of most industries, plastic is a raw material.

Rare earths are 17 nearly-indistinguishable soft heavy metals that are difficult to mine because they are seldom found in large deposits. They are considered rare for this reason but are more abundant than copper in the Earth's crust.

Raw materials are extracted at great scale and can have significant environmental and social impact. As such, responsible selection/sourcing of raw materials is a basic sustainability practice.

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