The US Department of Defense plans to sign a contract with a US or Canadian company for the first time before the end of the year to recover gallium, a mineral used in semiconductors and military radars.
It is reported that the proposed project is similar to reprocessing mine tailings or waste from the refining process to recover other minerals or additional quantities of major minerals.
On July 3rd, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs of China announced that in order to maintain national security and interests, they have decided to implement export controls on two key metals, gallium and germanium, starting from August 1st, 2023.
It is reported that gallium and germanium are key semiconductor materials, and China is the main producer of these two materials.
Earlier this month, when asked about the reserves of these two key metals, the US Department of Defense revealed that the United States has strategic reserves of germanium, but currently does not have inventory reserves of gallium.
US Department of Defense spokesperson Jeff Eugensen recently stated that he plans to focus on recycling gallium from existing waste in other products under the authority granted by the Defense Production Act by December 31 of this year.
The National Defense Production Act is a bill passed by the United States in the 1950s. It provides capital investment for key sectors of the domestic industry of the United States for targeted national security purposes. For example, in the early days of the outbreak of the COVID-19, the United States federal government used the National Defense Production Act to purchase virus kits and masks.
The US Department of Defense emphasized that "recycling is the quickest way to obtain these materials in the United States compared to mining." The US Department of Defense declined to disclose how much funding will be invested in the contract or the number of companies involved.
According to the US Department of Defense, the proposed project is similar to reprocessing mine tailings or waste from refining processes to recover other minerals or additional quantities of major minerals.
However, there is no precedent for funding under the National Defense Production Law to grant mineral recovery projects. In response, the US Department of Defense also stated, "Although recycling various key minerals is a common practice in industry, it has not yet been the subject of the Defense Production Act project
Bloomberg reported that gallium is used in air defense and missile defense radars on naval vessels, as well as ground radars used by the Army and Marine Corps to detect rockets, artillery, mortars, and more. Gallium and germanium are usually extracted in mining operations for other materials. But the cost of processing and refining them is high, so Western companies treat them as waste, while China gradually dominates supply.
(Comprehensive Finance Union, Overseas Network)