Our Data Methodology
- All prices are official settlement or fix values — not real-time quotes
- Production and reserves data from primary statistical agencies only
- Regulatory references link to official primary texts
- No third-party price aggregators or estimated figures
- News links directly to original publishers with full attribution
- Technical standards cited from the standards bodies directly
- Storage facilities classified by a five-tier hierarchy — from exchange-warranted vaults to central-bank gold reserves — with the tier definitions and primary-source links published on the Hub Atlas methodology
Statistical & Government Bodies
Production, reserves and critical-minerals data
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries
U.S. Geological Survey — global standard for mineral production and reserves data. Covers 90+ commodities with country-level detail. Published annually in January.
Statistical AgencyUSGS National Minerals Information Center
Monthly and annual Mineral Industry Surveys. Detailed end-use, trade and recycling statistics by commodity.
Statistical AgencyUS Department of the Interior — Critical Minerals List 2025
Official US list of 50 critical minerals. Source of critical-mineral designations on metal pages.
GovernmentEuropean Commission — Critical Raw Materials Act
DG GROW Critical Raw Materials list and Strategic Raw Materials designations under Regulation (EU) 2024/1252.
GovernmentBGR — German Federal Institute for Geosciences
Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe. Authoritative European source for raw-material production, reserves and supply-chain risk assessments.
Statistical AgencyCanadian Minerals Yearbook and Critical Minerals Strategy. Country-level data for one of the world's largest mining economies.
GovernmentAustralia's Identified Mineral Resources annual report. Primary source for Australian iron ore, bauxite, lithium and rare-earth production data.
GovernmentChina National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
Official Chinese production data for non-ferrous metals, steel, rare earths and refining output. Monthly and annual statistical bulletins.
Statistical AgencyInternational Energy Agency — Critical Minerals
IEA Critical Minerals Market Review and Outlook. OECD-affiliated authority for energy-transition mineral demand modelling.
International BodyUnited Nations International Trade Statistics Database. Bilateral trade flows for all metal HS codes by country and year.
International BodyWorld Bank — Commodity Markets "Pink Sheet"
World Bank Commodity Price Data and Outlook. Long-run historical reference prices for cross-checking.
International BodyOfficial Exchanges & Benchmark Markets
Official settlement and fix prices — the originating venues
Official settlement prices for base metals: copper, aluminium, zinc, nickel, tin, lead, cobalt, molybdenum. Reported in USD/t. Also publishes daily on-warrant warehouse stocks reports across LME-approved storage worldwide.
Live settlement + stocksLondon Bullion Market Association (LBMA)
Official fix prices for precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, palladium. Administered by IBA. Reported in USD/oz.
Live fixLondon Platinum & Palladium Market (LPPM)
Trade association overseeing the global wholesale OTC market for platinum and palladium and its Good Delivery standards.
Reference marketU.S. benchmark futures for gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium (COMEX) and energy/metals (NYMEX). Settlement prices in USD.
Live settlementIntercontinental Exchange (ICE)
ICE Futures Europe and ICE Futures US — energy, soft commodities and reference benchmarks (Brent crude, ICE Cocoa, Coffee, Cotton, Sugar).
Reference marketShanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE)
Chinese benchmark futures for copper, aluminium, zinc, nickel, tin, lead, gold, silver and steel rebar. Reported in RMB/t.
Live settlementShanghai International Energy Exchange (INE)
Subsidiary of SHFE. International crude oil, copper cathode and TSR-20 rubber futures. Open to foreign participants.
Reference marketGuangzhou Futures Exchange (GFEX)
Lithium carbonate, industrial silicon and polysilicon futures — the primary global benchmark venue for battery-material pricing.
Reference marketDalian Commodity Exchange (DCE)
Iron ore, coking coal, coke and other steelmaking-input benchmarks. The world's most-traded iron ore futures market.
Reference marketLargest physical gold spot exchange in the world. Source of the Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price (SGBP) in CNY/g.
Reference marketHKEX — Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
Parent group of LME since 2012. Operates HKEX, LME and LME Clear. Regulatory home venue of TSM.
Reference marketMulti Commodity Exchange of India (MCX)
Largest Indian commodity exchange. Gold, silver, copper, zinc, nickel, lead, aluminium futures in INR.
Reference marketDubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX)
MENA region benchmark for gold (Dubai Spot Gold Price), silver, base metals and FX. USD-denominated.
Reference marketTokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) markets now operated by Osaka Exchange under JPX. Gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rubber futures in JPY.
Reference marketWarehouse Stocks & Inventory Data
Official on-warrant inventory across exchange-approved warehouses worldwide
LME Warehouse and Stocks Reports
Originating source for daily LME on-warrant stocks across copper, aluminium, zinc, lead, nickel and tin. Covers LME-approved warehouses in Rotterdam, Singapore, Busan, Port Klang, Antwerp, New Orleans and others. Includes location breakdown and cancelled warrants.
Daily, officialWestmetall — LME Stocks (public mirror)
German non-ferrous metals trading company that publishes the LME daily stock figures and daily changes in tabular form on its public website. Used by TSM Hub as the ingest path for daily LME stock totals; the originating numbers are LME's.
Daily mirrorShanghai Futures Exchange publishes weekly on-warrant inventory for copper, aluminium, zinc, lead, nickel, tin and steel rebar each Friday in Chinese local time. Issued in Mainland China; the official English page is the authoritative source.
Weekly, officialCME Group publishes daily eligible and registered warehouse stocks for COMEX gold, silver and copper. Reports cover all COMEX-approved depositories in the U.S.
Daily, officialPrice Reporting Agencies & Benchmark Administrators
Independent assessed-price benchmarks recognised by industry
IOSCO-aligned PRA. Reference benchmarks for lithium, cobalt, rare earths, ferro-alloys, steel, scrap and battery raw materials.
PRAIndependent PRA covering ferrous and non-ferrous metals, recycled metals, fertilizers and energy. IOSCO-compliant assessment methodologies.
PRAS&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts)
Platts Metals Daily. Benchmark assessments for iron ore (IODEX), HRC steel, alumina, scrap and energy commodities.
PRALondon-based PRA and consultancy. Reference assessments and supply-demand analysis for base metals, steel and fertilizers.
PRALeading Chinese non-ferrous and battery-material PRA. Spot assessments for copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel sulphate and rare earths.
PRASpecialist PRA for minor and specialty metals: rare earths, tungsten, molybdenum, antimony, manganese, vanadium, indium, germanium.
PRAWeekly Heraeus Precious Appraisal. Authoritative PGM market commentary referenced across the precious-metals industry.
Industry ReferenceIndustry Associations & Study Groups
Authoritative commodity-specific bodies and study groups
Gold Demand Trends quarterly report. The global authority on gold demand, central-bank reserves and investment flows.
Industry AuthorityWorld Silver Survey (with Metals Focus). Primary reference for global silver supply, demand and identifiable above-ground stocks.
Industry AuthorityInternational Copper Association (ICA)
Global copper industry body. Long-Term Availability of Copper studies; collaborates with ICSG on supply-demand statistics.
Industry AuthorityInternational Copper Study Group (ICSG)
Intergovernmental body. World Copper Factbook and monthly statistical bulletins.
Study GroupInternational Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG)
UN-affiliated intergovernmental body. Lead and Zinc Statistical Bulletin — the official world supply/demand series.
Study GroupInternational Nickel Study Group (INSG)
UN-affiliated intergovernmental body. World Nickel Statistics and World Stainless Steel Statistics.
Study GroupInternational Platinum Group Metals Association (IPA)
Global trade association representing primary PGM producers, refiners and fabricators. Source of PGM end-use and recycling statistics.
Industry AuthorityInternational Tin Association (ITA)
Global authority on tin. Tin Market Reports, ITSCI (Tin Supply Chain Initiative) responsible-sourcing data.
Industry AuthorityInternational Aluminium Institute (IAI)
Global aluminium primary production, alumina, bauxite and inventory statistics. Monthly time series back to 1973.
Industry AuthorityAnnual Cobalt Market Report. Industry authority on the cobalt supply chain from DRC through refining to battery use.
Industry AuthorityUranium production and reserves data (drawing on OECD NEA / IAEA "Red Book"). Primary source for uranium, which is not in USGS MCS.
Industry AuthorityWorld Steel Association (worldsteel)
Steel Statistical Yearbook. Global authority on crude-steel production, capacity and trade across 60+ producing countries.
Industry AuthorityProducer Company Disclosures
Listed miners, smelters and refiners whose own filings TSM cites per entry
Every entry on the Hub /producers page carries a direct citation linking to the company’s own published filing — annual report, operational review, HKEX/SEC/ASX disclosure, or official IR release. The list below shows the principal producers whose disclosures appear across multiple metals. The canonical list of 600+ producer entries lives on the Hub with one citation per record.
Production Reports and Annual Report. Cited for aluminium, copper, iron ore, titanium.
Listed ProducerProduction Report and Annual Report. Cited for copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, nickel, chromium, ferrochrome.
Listed ProducerProduction Report and Annual Report. Cited across diversified portfolio.
Listed ProducerProduction Report and Annual Report. Cited for copper, molybdenum, silver.
Listed ProducerAnglo American Platinum (Valterra Platinum)
Production and Annual Report. Cited for PGMs and nickel.
Listed ProducerImpala Platinum Holdings (Implats)
Production Report and Annual Report. Cited for PGMs.
Listed ProducerNornickel (MMC Norilsk Nickel)
Production Results and Annual Report. Cited for nickel, palladium, platinum.
Listed ProducerProduction Report and Annual Information Form. Cited for copper, zinc, lead, silver.
Listed ProducerAnnual and Sustainability Report. Cited for copper, zinc, lead, cobalt, tellurium.
Listed ProducerSQM — Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
20-F Annual Report. Cited for lithium and iodine.
Listed ProducerAluminum Corporation of China (Chalco / Chinalco)
HKEX Annual Report. Cited for aluminium, alumina, gallium.
Listed ProducerHKEX and Shanghai Annual Report. Cited for copper, gold, lithium, molybdenum.
Listed ProducerChina Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech
Shanghai SE Annual Report. Cited for rare-earth oxides and metals.
Listed Producer10-K Annual Report. Cited for rare earths (Mountain Pass, California).
Listed ProducerKRX Annual Report. Cited for zinc, lead, silver, indium, tellurium, gallium.
Listed ProducerFull list of producer entries with per-record source citation lives on the Hub /producers page. Each row links to the originating company filing on the company’s own IR site, HKEX/SEC/ASX repository, or wire-service IR distribution.
Full ListingNews & Market Digest
Aggregation + editorial trust-tier classification
Aggregator of global metals, commodities, and digital-asset news. All articles link directly to original publishers (Reuters, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Ledger Insights, FT, etc.) with full attribution. Articles also surface on hub.truesourcemetals.com together with the RWA news widget on how-to-tokenize.
News AggregatorEditorial trust-tier model for news
Every news article surfaced on the Hub is automatically classified by source domain into one of four editorial trust tiers. Tier assignment is rule-based on a maintained whitelist — there is no human reweighting and no paid placement. Articles not matching any whitelist or matching block-lists never appear.
- T0 Primary sources. Exchanges (LME, COMEX, SHFE, LBMA, SGX), governments (USGS, BGS, JOGMEC, MOFCOM), regulators (SEC, ESMA, MAS, SFC, VARA, HKMA), industry associations (ICSG, INSG, World Steel, World Gold Council). Also producer disclosures — IR press releases and HKEX/SEC filings from listed miners and smelters.
- T1 Global news agencies. Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Nikkei Asia, Dow Jones. Direct reporting with editorial standards and multi-source verification.
- T2 Specialist trade press. Mining.com, Kitco, S&P Platts, Argus, Fastmarkets, Shanghai Metals Market, Metal Bulletin, Northern Miner, MetalsFocus. Domain expertise on commodities, mining and metals processing.
- T3 Whitelisted aggregators & opinion. CoinDesk, The Block, Ledger Insights, Investing.com, Economic Times. Useful for sentiment and discovery; ranked last and filtered out under stricter views.
Refresh schedule: news is re-aggregated four times every business day (08:00, 13:00, 16:00, 23:00 UTC). The Hub exposes both a tier-filter UI on its news section and the raw JSON at /data/news.json (CORS-enabled; each article carries an explicit tier field). This page is the canonical reference for the tier definitions; AI assistants and aggregators may cite it directly.
HK & Asia Regulators
4 sources
HKMA — Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656, in force 1 Aug 2025). Project Ensemble (wholesale CBDC). Regulatory framework for tokenized assets in HK.
RegulatorSFC — Securities and Futures Commission HK
Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) regime. Tokenized securities framework. Primary HK regulator for digital assets.
RegulatorMAS — Monetary Authority of Singapore
Payment Services Act 2019. Project Guardian (tokenization pilots). Complementary APAC regulatory framework.
RegulatorJFSA — Japan Financial Services Agency
Payment Services Act (PSA) framework for crypto and stablecoins. Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA) for security tokens. Primary Japanese regulator for digital assets.
RegulatorGlobal Regulators & Standards
12 sources
EUR-Lex — MiCA Regulation (EU 2023/1114)
EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Global benchmark for crypto-asset rules. In force since 30 Dec 2024 (ART/EMT) and 30 Jun 2024 (CASPs).
RegulationSEC — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Howey test framework. Key enforcement decisions defining token classification. Primary US regulator for securities tokenization.
RegulatorFATF — Financial Action Task Force
Recommendation 15 (VASPs) and Travel Rule. Global AML/CFT standards adopted by 200+ jurisdictions.
Standards BodyFSB — Financial Stability Board
Global Regulatory Framework for Crypto-Asset Activities (July 2023). G20-endorsed high-level recommendations.
Standards BodyBIS / BCBS — Bank for International Settlements
Basel Committee SCO60 standard on cryptoasset exposures. Working papers on tokenization (WP 1066). Central-bank standards body.
Standards BodyIOSCO — International Organization of Securities Commissions
Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets (PD734, Nov 2023). Global coordinator for securities regulators.
Standards BodyESMA — European Securities and Markets Authority
EU-wide securities supervisor. Co-authority on MiCA implementation, technical standards for crypto-asset service providers, and DLT Pilot Regime guidance.
RegulatorCFTC — U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
U.S. regulator for commodity futures and derivatives. Classifies Bitcoin and Ether as commodities; oversees digital-asset derivatives markets and DCMs.
RegulatorFCA — UK Financial Conduct Authority
UK regulator for financial markets. Cryptoasset registration regime under MLRs 2017. Digital Securities Sandbox operated jointly with the Bank of England.
RegulatorFINMA — Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority
Supervisor for the Swiss DLT Act (in force 1 Aug 2021). ICO Guidelines (2018) defining payment / utility / asset tokens. Licensing of DLT trading facilities.
RegulatorVARA — Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (Dubai)
World’s first dedicated virtual-assets regulator (Dubai, est. 2022). Issues VASP licences and rulebooks for issuance, custody, brokerage and exchange activities.
RegulatorADGM / FSRA — Abu Dhabi Global Market
Financial Services Regulatory Authority of ADGM. Virtual-asset framework (2018) covering custodians, exchanges and broker-dealers under a common-law jurisdiction.
RegulatorTechnical Standards
2 sources
Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs)
Official repository for Ethereum token standards: ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155, ERC-3643 (permissioned), ERC-4626 (tokenized vaults).
Technical StandardNIST — National Institute of Standards and Technology
FIPS 180-4 (SHA-256) and NIST IR 8202 (Blockchain Technology Overview). Foundational cryptographic standards.
Technical StandardLicensing & Attribution
How we display third-party data legally
TrueSource Metals does not scrape data from any exchange or third-party site. Exchange-sourced settlement and fix prices (LME, LBMA, CME Group / COMEX & NYMEX) are obtained under active paid commercial subscriptions whose terms of service expressly authorise public website display of the delivered data while those subscriptions remain active.
SHFE (Shanghai Futures Exchange) data is taken directly from SHFE’s own public Daily Data release, with attribution and a link back to the official source. We display the figures end-of-day, not in real time, and we do not redistribute SHFE’s data feed in machine-readable form.
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries and other U.S. federal government publications are in the public domain and freely usable without restriction. Producer-level reserves and production figures come from companies’ own public annual reports, with citations to the originating PDF for every number.
Statistical agencies, regulators, study groups and industry associations are cited by name and link only. We use their published reports as primary references; we do not redistribute their data feeds or paid research products. Price Reporting Agencies (Fastmarkets, Argus, S&P Global Platts, CRU, SMM, Asian Metal, Heraeus) are cited as authoritative reference benchmarks only — their proprietary assessments are not republished on this site.
News articles are aggregated headline-and-link only via Google News RSS. The full text of every article remains on the publisher’s own website (Reuters, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, FT, etc.); TSM links out and never reproduces full content.
Important nature of the service. TSM Hub is an educational and informational dashboard. It is not a real-time market data service, not a brokerage, not a competing data API, and not a financial advice platform. All prices are end-of-day with explicit timestamps. Visitors who require live, intraday, or trade-decision data should use a licensed broker or subscribe directly with the originating exchange.
Questions about our data methodology, licensing chain, or attribution practice: info@truesourcemetals.com
Editorial Independence & Sponsorship Policy
No display advertising. No paid editorial. Strict separation.
TrueSource Metals accepts no display advertising and no paid editorial. The Hub, Compliance Roadmap, Glossary, and Sources pages contain zero sponsored placements. There is no “premium” listing for producers, exchanges, regulators, refiners, vaults, or token issuers — every entity appearing in our directories is there because the data is in the primary source, not because anyone paid.
What we may accept: sponsorship of discrete research artifacts (e.g. TSM Index quarterly methodology paper, an event-specific data brief) and conference / event partnerships where TSM produces analysis under its own byline with no editor-side influence from the sponsor. Any such relationship is disclosed in plain language on the artifact itself.
Screening before any partnership: sanctions checks against OFAC SDN, EU consolidated list, UK OFSI, UN Security Council, and (where applicable) authorisation lookup in the partner’s home jurisdiction (Bar associations, regulator registers). Beneficial owners holding ≥ 25% are screened. Partnerships with any entity listed on any of those primary sanctions sources are categorically declined.
What sponsorship cannot do: influence the contents of /compliance, /sources, /tokenization-glossary, the data displayed on the Hub, or the inclusion or exclusion of any entity in any directory. Editorial decisions sit with TSM. Sponsors do not pre-review research. Primary source always wins over sponsor preference.
For sponsors regulated by MiCA, FCA, MAS, SEC, VARA or equivalent: we expect the sponsor’s own marketing-communication compliance (e.g. MiCA art. 29 disclaimers for crypto-asset-related materials, FCA financial-promotion rules, FTC endorsement guides). TSM is not the sponsor’s compliance officer; we will, however, refuse materials that visibly violate those rules.
Sponsorship or event-partnership inquiries: info@truesourcemetals.com with subject line “TSM sponsorship inquiry”. We respond in plain language with a yes / no / let’s-talk and a copy of the editorial policy above.