https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/5420e4d3-5811-4af5-8ede-6de3db1d8beb It's now understood that China has deep and durable monopolies on nearly all the Rare Earth metals and critical minerals. But each of those minerals poses unique challenges to Western countries who hope to build supply chains for them. Gallium is instructive. It is a crucial component for the most advanced electronics used in defense, and in civilian sectors. But gallium is produced as a byproduct of aluminum smelting, from bauxite. Only while smelting hundreds of millions of tons of bauxite ores to extract aluminum, can engineers extract a few hundred tons of gallium. Most smelters in Western countries have closed, and bauxite mining and aluminum smelting today are dominated by China, Russia, and India. Initiatives to “re-shore” gallium production in the United States suffer from two defects. Western smelters never bothered to extract gallium in the first place. And in order to produce trace amounts of gallium, the bauxite and aluminum smelting industries need to be rebuilt. Closing scene, Beijing Resources and links: The Critical Minerals to China, EU, and U.S. National Security https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/the-critical-minerals-to-china-eu-and-u-s-national-security/ How Much Control China Has Over the World’s Critical Minerals https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-control-china-has-over-the-worlds-critical-minerals/ Figure 6. Global Primary Aluminum Production, 2021 https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47294 Decline of U.S. Primary Aluminum Production and the Growth of Secondary Aluminum https://www.lightmetalage.com/news/industry-news/smelting/decline-of-u-s-primary-aluminum-production-and-the-growth-of-secondary-aluminum/ De-risking Gallium Supply Chains: The National Security Case for Eroding China’s Critical Mineral Dominance https://www.csis.org/analysis/de-risking-gallium-supply-chains-national-security-case-eroding-chinas-critical-mineral USGS critical minerals review https://apps.usgs.gov/minerals-information-archives/articles/usgs-critical-minerals-review-2021.pdf A model to assess industry vulnerability to disruptions in mineral commodity supplies https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420722003348 Mineral Monopoly: China’s Control over Gallium Is a National Security Threat https://features.csis.org/hiddenreach/china-critical-mineral-gallium/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 06:54:22 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/5420e4d3-5811-4af5-8ede-6de3db1d8beb All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.