The article is misleading from several aspects. China mostly refines the gallium and germanium as opposed to mining them. This is the case with most of the “rare” earths. They buy the ore. The reason they do most of the refining is they have zero environmental regulations. Most of the metals require numerous acid baths and the processes are very dirty. Thus, the mines in the US were shut down as it was either that or send the ore to China to be refined. It is cheaper to mine in Africa and South America because they too have few if any environmental laws. Therefore, in those countries you can cheaply pressure wash mountains down to the ground and nobody protests. The lithium mines in Africa are defines as “boutique” operations because they use very little equipment. Instead, they have tiny, barefoot children who are essentially slaves. (Aren’t Tesla’s awesome?) The US has plenty of gallium and germanium. What we don’t do is anything “dirty.” So we can have pristine everything and no cell phones or we can spend a bit more and have pristine land and cell phones.
When China tried this with the rare earths Trump husbanded a mine in California and it was just getting itself certified when he left office. Don’t know if Biden shut it down or not. Even though the processes were certified as baby-butt clean the enviorwhackos wanted it shut down.
We don’t have a shortage of anything because we can’t get or produce that thing. We have artificial shortages because we have liberals.
“The US has plenty of gallium and germanium”
Who invented and built, in quantity, the first transistors and integrated circuits?
“We have artificial shortages because we have liberals.”
Well, since liberals control every single important institution in the country, the shortage is not artificial and temporary, but real and permanent.
Heh awesome job.
Current annual production of refined germanium is led by China at 85,000 tons, while estimates place U.S. reserves near 2,500 tons. Reported production of germanium in the U.S. is limited to one site, the Apex mine in Washington county, Utah. The Apex mine produced gallium (Ga) and germanium as primary products during the mid-1980s. Since its closure, germanium recovery has been restricted to refining processes of ore concentrates and recycling of waste scrap both in and outside the U.S. (U.S. Geological Survey, 2020).
https://mrdata.usgs.gov/deposit/metadata/USGS_Germanium_US_Metadata.html
We don’t have a shortage of anything because we can’t get or produce that thing. We have artificial shortages because we have liberals.
And we will continue to have those shortages because our potus is a complete moron along with his staff.
Quite possibly working to bring us to third world status deliberately, imo.
they promise the jetsons
we will get the flintstones
“The article is misleading from several aspects. China mostly refines the gallium and germanium as opposed to mining them. This is the case with most of the “rare” earths. They buy the ore. “
There is no such thing as “gallium ore”. Gallium is generally produced as a byproduct of refining sphalerite for zinc and bauxite for aluminum. Even in those ores, gallium is a very minor byproduct and it takes quite a bit of zinc and aluminum refining to produce any appreciable amount of gallium.
Gallium was basically unknown until 1875 and even today it has few uses.
Well said!
Mostly correct. But the Chinese export controls on Rare Earths started and ended long before Trump was involved in politics.
My company made a small fortune then.. as we found a way to circumvent the export restrictions.
Ronald Reagan once famously said that if the Communists took over the Sahara Desert, it would be just a matter of time before there would be a shortage of sand. He might have said Liberals rather than Communists, but it is difficult to distinguish the two these days.