Gallium (Ga) is a soft, silvery-white metal with an unusual trait: it melts in your hand. While this property makes it useful in low-temperature alloys, gallium’s true value lies in its chemical performance.
Its most important application is in gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, which are critical for high-efficiency electronics like LEDs, smartphones, fiber optics, solar panels, and radar systems.
GaN semiconductors offer faster charging, higher energy efficiency, and better heat resistance than traditional silicon chips. These benefits make gallium essential not just for consumer tech, but also for defense applications such as the advanced Patriot missile system, where GaN components enhance radar and targeting capabilities.
A threatened supply
Despite its growing demand, gallium supply remains severely constrained. China produces nearly 99% of all refined Ga, and as of December 2024, they have banned exports into the U.S.
This triggered a sharp rise in gallium prices and sparked fears of a shortage.
Besides trade war restraints, gallium is hard to get yours hands on for another reason. Its physical and chemical behavior make it rarely found in concentrated, mineable form. Miners typically extract gallium in trace amounts as a byproduct of bauxite (used for aluminum) and zinc mining. The quantities involved—often around 50 parts per million—are so small that extraction is not typically cost-effective.
Global gallium production hovers around 320 tonnes per year. This leaves supply vulnerable to price spikes and export controls.
A domestic U.S opportunity
Only one primary gallium mine has ever operated in the U.S: the Apex Mine in Utah, a rare carbonate-hosted lead-zinc deposit rich in gallium and germanium. The deposit had unique geological enrichment, where weathering and oxidation allowed gallium to substitute into iron-rich minerals like jarosite and limonite. Apex produced gallium at an average grade of 320 ppm before closing in 2011.
Ares Strategic Mining (CSE: ARS), best known for advancing fluorspar production has recently reported the presence of gallium at its Lost Sheep Mine site in Utah. Though Ares is currently focused on developing processing infrastructure for fluorspar, they have reported that their processing facilities can be upgraded to extract gallium. With no active domestic source of either gallium or fluorspar, the company is well-positioned to contribute to two critically constrained mineral markets.
Ares proposed method of byproduct extraction offers a key advantage: it sidesteps the economic hurdle that prevents most gallium from being extracted during aluminum refining. If Ares can prove this model at scale, it may offer a replicable approach to sourcing gallium domestically, reducing reliance on foreign-controlled supply chains.
English 
German