Pricing for key chipmaking material hits 13-year high following Chinese export restrictions — China's restrictions on Gallium exports hit hard (www.tomshardware.com)
from avieshek@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 14:29
https://lemmy.world/post/23240476

Prices rose to $595 per kilogram, a 17% increase over the previous level on December 11

#technology

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NOT_RICK@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 15:17 next collapse

I’d imagine this will lead to more gallium mining outside of China ramping up, but I’m not sure.

Godort@lemm.ee on 17 Dec 15:53 next collapse

You’d think, but its easier to just charge an extra 20% and then blame China while pocketing the extra 3%.

We wont start mining for rare earth metals until they simply refuse to sell to us.

avieshek@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 16:05 collapse

Cheap labour followed by infrastructure if not (kinda corrupt system) government is also a thing.

progandy@feddit.org on 17 Dec 16:33 next collapse

That would require mining operations to be cheaper than the higher chinese export prices. I do not know if that is possible with labour costs, environmental requirements, permits and other obligations.

Skyrmir@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 18:45 next collapse

It would take years for new mining to begin to come on line. No one takes that risk based on the short term of a single presidential term.

GamingChairModel@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 15:11 collapse

Might not need to even have much new mining.

Gallium is primarily extracted from bauxite, which is already mined worldwide for aluminum processing. So with gallium being a very small byproduct of aluminum processing from mined bauxite, the bottleneck probably isn’t in the mines, because mining and processing bauxite is already something many countries do. It’s just not always economically profitable to further process the gallium at the same time, but if the need is there, that can be ramped up at existing aluminum plants.

It’s not an overnight process but with many elements, the limiting factor isn’t actual rarity, but the high energy/equipment needs of the process to extract and purify the element, and the high amounts of waste produced.

ironsoap@lemmy.one on 18 Dec 05:56 next collapse

Good thing they found some in Montana. Not that it’ll be online for a while.

I think the market is going to struggle with this for a while yet, in the mist of this brewing trade war.

GamingChairModel@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 14:57 collapse

I haven’t seen any reporting on just how much gallium, germanium, and antimony is used in electronics. I can see that it’s basically present in all electronics, and the price per kilogram has gone up a lot under the restrictions, and that China accounts for 94% of the world’s production.

Ok, so is this like gold, then, where very small quantities are used in most electronics so that it matters, but doesn’t actually account for a significant percentage of the cost of the finished product?

How much gallium is used to manufacture a typical cell phone, a laptop, a car? How much does that $90/kg price hike translate to actual devices? Because if 1 gram of gallium goes into a particular device, that’s an increase of 9 cents in raw materials, basically a rounding error.