China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.
China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.
We mine a fair amount here in the US, and I’ve heard a lot of talk about expanding mining operations. I’m guessing it’s one of those cases where it’s just not economical given China’s pricing to extract those metals, and we could probably change that if we needed to.
So yeah, I’m not too worried about it. Once costs go up, mining companies will get interested and provide supply.