Gallium
A by-product of alumina refining that makes gallium arsenide and gallium nitride chips for radar, telecoms and LEDs; China makes 99%.
Tech & minor metals · No. 38
- EU strategic
- EU critical 2023
- US critical 2025
- India critical 2023
- HHI 9,739 · highly concentrated
Bauxite holds about 50 parts per million gallium, and China extracts 99% of the world's primary metal from it.
Chart: Illustration: Gallium
Where it comes from
Chart: Map of where it comes from
Gallium has no ore. It is pulled from the caustic liquor of alumina refineries, since bauxite carries about 50 ppm, with a little more from zinc residues.
Three things to know
- Gallium arsenide and gallium nitride integrated circuits took 73% of US gallium use in 2025, because they outpace silicon in RF and power chips.
- The metal melts just above room temperature, and its value climbs steeply with purity, from 4N primary metal to 6N-7N crystal grade.
- World output more than tripled from 304 t in 2020 to 987 t in 2024, after earlier closures in Germany, Hungary and Kazakhstan.
The journey
- 1 BauxiteAbout 50 ppm gallium
- 2 Bayer liquorCaustic stream at alumina refineries
- 3 ExtractionGallium recovered from the liquor
- 4 Primary metalLow-purity 4N metal, mostly Chinese
- 5 RefiningUpgraded to 6N-7N for crystal growth
- 6 ChipsGaAs and GaN wafers and devices