I heard a talk by James Kenneth Galbraith, son of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, today. One of his points was that gallium is essential to electronics, chips, etc. It is obtained as a byproduct from making aluminum. China produces a whole lot of aluminum, and the US not so much. Access to gallium is critical, and the Chinese have already squeezed the supply to get concessions from the US. How important is gallium? How much clout does this give China? JKG was hopeful this may be an important factor in reining in Trumpian policies and anti-China craziness, while cognizant of the chance it could make war more likely. What do others think?
Rare earth metals are something China has tried to monopolize, kind of like how Taiwan has monopolized semiconductors. Rare earth metals are necessary for modern electronics and renewable energy products, as well as modern military equipment.
I think the US is trying to diversity its rare earth supply to avoid being dependent on China.
Looking into it, gallium isn’t a rare earth metal, but China seems to have a long term strategy of monopolizing the metals needed for 21st century manufacturing.
A lot of these minerals can be found all over the place, and could easily be mined all over the place. The only reason why China currently dominates the markets is because lax safety regulations and low wages makes them cheaper to produce in China. But if we really wanted to, we could produce just as much domestically, and even if the product were ten times more expensive, that wouldn’t make a big difference in the price of computer chips, which mostly aren’t based on the price of the raw materials.