The U.S. government is supporting new technologies to restore domestic production of the critical raw material after nearly 40 years.
The U.S. Department of Energy is allocating $5.4 million to boost gallium production. The funding will support five projects by domestic companies aimed at recovering gallium as a byproduct from new or existing industrial processes. Among the selected initiatives is the aluminum producer Atlantic Alumina Company in the state of Louisiana. Earlier this year, the U.S. government took a stake in the company to help finance the construction of the first large-scale domestic gallium production facility.
According to Deputy Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson, the chosen projects are expected to reestablish domestic gallium manufacturing through innovative approaches after a gap of almost four decades.
The “Technology for Recovery and Advanced Critical-material Extraction – Gallium” (TRACE-Ga) program, announced last fall, represents the largest nationwide initiative focused on this material to date. Previously, the government had supported individual efforts, such as a process developed by an Australian company to recover gallium from electronic and industrial waste using extreme heat.
Gallium is a key material for numerous civilian and military applications, particularly in the semiconductor industry. The United States currently relies entirely on imports. Supply concerns intensified further when China, the world’s leading gallium producer, introduced strict export controls on the material in summer 2023.