Interesting tidbits re chromite from 

By Shane Lasley
Mining News 

Critical Minerals Alaska – Chromite

(https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2018/07/01/in-depth/critical-minerals-alaska-chromite/5239.html )

"Because there is no viable substitute for chromium in the production of stainless steel and because the United States has small chromium resources, there has been concern about domestic supply during every national military emergency since World War I," the USGS explains

"Chromium has no substitute in stainless steel, the leading end use, or in superalloys, the major strategic end use," USGS wrote in its annual report, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2018.

While the U.S. consumes roughly 6 percent of the world's chromite ore production, none of this chromium mineral is mined domestically. Instead, America relies on foreign sources for about 69 percent of its supply of chromium, the balance comes from the domestic recycling of stainless steel.

Roughly 31 million tons of chromite was mined globally in 2017, nearly half of which came from the rich deposits in South Africa. The remaining 52 percent came from mines in Kazakhstan (5.4 million tons); India (3.2 million tons); Turkey (2.8 million tons); and other countries (4.2 million tons).

The U.S., which is not among the "other countries" that produced chromite, consumed roughly 420,000 tons of chromium, worth roughly $679 million in 2017.

South Africa accounted for roughly 98 percent of the chromite and 35 percent of the refined chromium imported into the United States last year. Kazakhstan (12 percent) and Russia (7 percent) where other suppliers of chromium.