U.S. News: U.S. Goes All In to Produce Critical Metal --- Pentagon spends big on plants that make gallium in effort to catch up with China

 

 

“Gallium is a quirky silver metal with low enough melting temperature that it can liquefy in your hand.

 

It has long held a spot on the periodic table of elements, but has remained under the radar despite its use in military systems, self-driving vehicles and fast chargers for laptops. And substantially all of the gallium supplied worldwide comes from China.

 

An investor with deep pockets -- the U.S. government -- now aims to change that. It is sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into plants in the U.S. and overseas, seeking to build its own gallium pipeline and reduce reliance on Chinese imports.

 

One project the Trump administration has targeted is in Wagerup, Western Australia. Alcoa has operated a refinery there since the 1980s that processes bauxite to make alumina. The bauxite also contains trace amounts of gallium, so Alcoa intends to build a plant to extract it.

 

The U.S. government plans to provide funding for the effort, along with Australia and Japan. In return, Alcoa said, the governments will receive a share of the metal from the plant.

 

The plant is expected to eventually account for about 100 metric tons of gallium, or 10% of global gallium demand, according to Alcoa. Worldwide, 760 tons of gallium were produced in 2024.

 

"We've been very aware that gallium can be extracted out of our process for a number of years," Alcoa Chief Executive William Oplinger said in an interview. "We could do this at other refineries if the world needs significantly more gallium and the economics support it."

 

Benchmark prices for gallium outside of China have roughly tripled over the past two years. January's average price was a record high at nearly $1,572 a kilogram, according to Argus Media.

 

Gallium is processed with nitrogen and arsenic to make substrates for high-performance semiconductors.

 

 In chips, gallium can handle high levels of electricity and is more heat- and moisture-resistant than silicon. Beyond cellphones and laptops, it is also used in satellites to protect components from radiation in space.

 

The U.S. is investing at home to boost domestic gallium supplies. The Defense Department and private investors are putting up $1.9 billion for an equity stake in a joint venture with Korea Zinc to allow the Seoul-based company to acquire a zinc mine and smelter in the U.S.

 

At a Tennessee plant, Korea Zinc plans to extract gallium and about a dozen other critical metals present in the residue from refining zinc ore. A further $4.7 billion in private and government loans will help Korea Zinc build a smelter to carry out the complex separation of metals.

 

The Tennessee operation is expected to produce as much as 54 tons of gallium a year starting in 2030.

 

Another gallium-recovery initiative is under way in Louisiana at the nation's sole alumina refinery. At a site tucked between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Atlantic Alumina wants to expand production of alumina -- critical for smelting aluminum -- and add gallium-processing equipment.

 

For years Atlantic Alumina has been stockpiling so-called red mud, left over from converting bauxite into alumina, the table-salt-like material that is turned into aluminum in a smelter. But the company didn't have the ability to further extract materials such as gallium from the mud.

 

Enter the Defense Department. The government is investing $150 million for an equity stake in Atlantic Alumina to support what the company envisions as a $450 million expansion and gallium project. The company expects to make about 50 tons of gallium a year.

 

Global gallium demand is projected to increase about 24% by 2030, according to Rovjok, a critical-minerals consulting firm in Finland.

 

Rovjok estimated that making gallium in the U.S. would cost over 20% more than it does in China.

 

The push by the U.S. and other countries to increase gallium production could create a glut of the metal, said Ian Lange, an economics professor at the Colorado School of Mines. "The market is so small it would crash," he said.

 

China gained a stranglehold over the gallium market when it expanded its aluminum capacity at breakneck speed and included gallium production as part of alumina refining.

 

Supply-chain bottlenecks during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, along with China's use of export restrictions in recent years, have fueled a run-up in gallium prices.

 

Australia said last month that it would make gallium a priority in its own roughly $800 million proposed strategic reserve of critical minerals.

 

"There's a lot of work to be done on how we do collaborate and work together to develop this industry," Madeleine King, Australia's mining minister, said Feb. 4. "We should have done it 20 or 30 years ago."

 

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Initiative Is Part of Larger Push to Help Several Industries

 

The gallium push is part of the Trump administration's effort to secure rare-earth and critical minerals for the defense, automotive and technology industries.

 

That includes providing billions of dollars in financing to help the U.S. build a strategic reserve of products including lithium, cobalt and nickel.

 

China, which accounts for most of the world's production of critical minerals, introduced export controls on gallium in 2023. The next year, it banned gallium exports to the U.S. outright. China later suspended the ban, but it could reinstate it later this year.

 

At an event Wednesday, officials from the U.S. and other governments pledged investments to expand supplies of critical minerals and reduce reliance on China.

 

"We see telltale signs of a market distorted beyond recognition, one that punishes strategic investment, one that punishes diversification," Vice President JD Vance said.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: U.S. Goes All In to Produce Critical Metal --- Pentagon spends big on plants that make gallium in effort to catch up with China. Tita, Bob; Hoyle, Rhiannon.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Feb 2026: A3.