Where to find official energy, mining and economic data

Market-entry research usually starts with a search engine and ends with a number from an unknown source in a slide deck. A better habit is to go to the institutions that collect the data, learn what each one measures and write down the date of every figure. This guide lists sources we use at AuraTender, with what each is good for and where it falls short.

Energy

The International Energy Agency collects, assesses and disseminates energy statistics on supply and demand, compiled into energy balances. Its Energy Data Centre also holds prices, public research and development spending and energy efficiency indicators. The time series goes back to 1971 and covers more than 150 countries. Some of its datasets are open and others need a subscription, so check the access terms on each page before you plan a project around it.

The IEA's World Energy Investment report tracks where money goes. The 2026 edition presents the first set of full-year estimates for 2026 and adds regional analysis and data on sources of investment and finance. It also has an Investment Data Explorer. Use it to see how capital is moving between sectors and regions, and to compare a country's investment with its neighbours.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration offers its data free of charge as an API, an Excel add-in, bulk files and widgets. APIv2 is a RESTful design with a hierarchy of datasets, and requests carry a free key that you register for on the EIA site. EIA data is strongest for the United States, with international series for other countries. The same agency's capital cost study, written for the Annual Energy Outlook 2025 with 19 generator types, is a standard reference on what new power plants cost in U.S. conditions.

Minerals

The U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, published on 6 February 2026, covers more than 90 minerals and materials. Each chapter reports events, trends and issues for the commodity along with industry structure, government programmes, tariffs, five-year statistics and world production, reserves and resources. Start there for the geography of supply, and then move to each country's geological survey and the technical reports companies file when they list.

The reporting codes behind company resource and reserve figures are managed under the CRIRSCO umbrella. When a company announces a resource, check which code applies, and who signed the estimate as the competent or qualified person.

Economy and governance

The World Bank's World Development Indicators carry growth, inflation, investment and population series for most countries, with metadata that states the definition and the source for each. Inflation, for instance, is distributed from the IMF's International Financial Statistics. The Worldwide Governance Indicators, now in their 2026 update covering 1996 to 2025, give six governance scores from 35 sources. The World Bank states that they are estimates meant for research and policy analysis, and not definitive criteria for investment risk decisions.

The IMF's World Economic Outlook is the standard source for forecasts of growth, inflation, fiscal balance and public debt. The April 2026 edition includes a statistical appendix with the assumptions behind the figures and country notes. Read the notes. They explain why one country's data series are not comparable with another's.

The OECD publishes country risk classifications used by export credit agencies. They measure transfer and convertibility risk and force majeure events, and the OECD states they are not sovereign risk ratings. MIGA's guarantee products list the political risks that insurers will cover, which makes the list a useful checklist.

Infrastructure deals and extractive contracts

The World Bank's Private Participation in Infrastructure database records over 6,400 projects in 137 low- and middle-income countries across energy, transport, water and sewerage, ICT backbone and municipal solid waste, with data going back to 1990. If you want to know who has built a private power plant in a given country, and under what contract type, start here.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative publishes country reports on revenues, contracts and licences, production and exports. Under the 2023 Standard it encourages disclosure of beneficial ownership at a threshold of ten percent or lower. A country's EITI report tells you what the government publishes about its sector, and what it does not.

Public procurement

Tender data comes from three places. Multilateral bank notices are on the World Bank and IDB websites, filtered by country, sector and notice type. National portals such as SECOP II in Colombia, Mercado Publico in Chile, SEACE in Peru and the PNCP in Brazil hold domestic tenders. Open datasets in the OCDS format, listed in the Open Contracting Partnership's Data Registry, let you analyse past awards in bulk. Each registry page gives the date range, the update frequency and the licence, and these details vary widely between countries.

Habits that prevent bad numbers

Record the source, the table or series name, the unit, the currency, the year and the date you downloaded it. The same indicator can differ between sources because of definitions, revisions or the date of the download. If two sources disagree, find out why before you pick one.

Check units. Energy appears in joules, barrels of oil equivalent, tonnes of oil equivalent and kilowatt-hours. Capacity is in megawatts and energy in megawatt-hours. Minerals appear as contained metal, concentrate or ore, and a price per tonne of concentrate is not a price per tonne of metal.

Check the vintage. A table published in a given year may be using data from two years before. Many series are revised, and the first estimate is often the least accurate. Where the source marks a figure as an estimate or projection, keep that label in your own work.

Use perception indices for direction and hard data for decisions. A governance score helps you decide where to look closer. A contract clause, a tax rate or a payment record decides whether the project works.

Finally, do not rely on a single institution. Compare an international source with a national statistics office, and a government figure with a company filing. When they agree, you can move faster. When they do not, the gap is where the next question lives.

Guides explain how things generally work. They are not legal, tax or investment advice for a specific project or country. See our editorial policy.