Rare Metals

Three years of rare metal controls: why gallium cannot be sourced away from China, and where the alternatives actually stand

Three years on from China's gallium and germanium export controls, prices keep climbing and rare earth magnet shipments to Japan fell to 111 tonnes in July. Dependence has barely shifted, and the reason is structural: gallium is not mined on its own, it is a byproduct. Working from USGS primary statistics, here is the shape of the dependence, where alternative supply actually stands, and what a company can realistically do.