China has secured a virtual monopoly over gallium, a critical mineral used to produce microchips in advanced military technologies. Failing to de-risk gallium supply chains could have serious security and economic consequences for the United States and its allies.
Seems silly. China is doing almost all the refining but they don’t have a monopoly of the extraction of the originating mineral. There’s a lot of it in Australia, and the US could pivot to doing its own refinement at any time.
The thing is that it’s going to take a significant amount of time to create refining facilities, train workers, and so on. During that time, Chinese companies will have a huge market advantage over western ones.
Seems silly. China is doing almost all the refining but they don’t have a monopoly of the extraction of the originating mineral. There’s a lot of it in Australia, and the US could pivot to doing its own refinement at any time.
The thing is that it’s going to take a significant amount of time to create refining facilities, train workers, and so on. During that time, Chinese companies will have a huge market advantage over western ones.