Mining of chrysotile asbestos

Despite actions by international ban asbestos coalitions and campaigning networks, there remains a handful of countries that continue to mine chrysotile asbestos and export to other countries for producing asbestos-containing materials for export.

The majority of countries have either banned the use of asbestos via legislation or restricted usage so that in 2022, only ~12% of countries use more than 500 tonnes per year.

According to the US Geological Survey 2023, the top four countries who continue to mine chrysotile asbestos remain Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Brazil with Zimbabwe intending to increase mining activities in coming years.

Country 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Brazil 77,057 172,256 182,965 188,813 166,890 150,000
China 130,000 160,000 196,000 200,000 250,000 250,000
Kazakhstan 227,400 250,100 250,200 255,200 225,700 250,000
Russia 708,000 750,000 630,000 600,000 306,900 310,000
Zimbabwe 8,000
Total 1,150,000 1,330,000 1,260,000 1,240,000 949,000 960,000

Table 1: Asbestos – World Production, by Country or locality (Metric tons)

Global consumption of chrysotile asbestos peaked in 1980 at approximately 5 million tonnes and has slowly declined to the latest recorded year of 2023 at 1.24 million tonnes.

Brazil

In 2017, the Supreme Court of Brazil ruled that the use of asbestos was unconstitutional and that under no circumstances could any measures be enacted permitting the use of asbestos in any Brazilian jurisdiction or state.

In 2023, this decision was upheld by Supreme Court that the Federal Policy which had allowed the commercialization of asbestos was unconstitutional; as a result of this judgment, the mining, processing and export of asbestos from Brazil was banned.

To date, at least 17 states in Brazil have imposed bans on asbestos however, a full national ban has not been announced.

Read more about the chronology of asbestos bans here: International Ban Asbestos Secretariat: Chronology of Asbestos Bans and Restrictions

Asbestos Statistics and Information

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