China produces 99% of the world's primary gallium. What gallium is, what it powers, and why it is a chokepoint.
Last updated: October 2026
Gallium is a soft, silvery metal recovered almost entirely as a byproduct of processing bauxite into alumina and, to a lesser extent, from zinc ores. It has no dedicated mines. China produces 99% of the world's primary low-purity gallium, and control of gallium is geopolitical leverage: whoever holds it weighs on the semiconductor supply chains that depend on it.
Primary low-purity gallium production, 2024-2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025/2026). High-purity refined gallium is more distributed: Canada, China, Japan, Slovakia and the United States are the known principal producers. World high-purity refined production was about 320,000 kg in 2024.
Gallium is a soft, silvery metal recovered almost entirely as a byproduct of processing bauxite into alumina and, to a lesser extent, from zinc ores. It has no dedicated mines. Gallium's value comes from its compounds: gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN), semiconductors that work at higher frequencies, voltages and temperatures than silicon.
Gallium arsenide and gallium nitride semiconductors for integrated circuits and optoelectronic devices: laser diodes, LEDs, photodetectors and solar cells. In the United States, integrated circuits account for 73% of gallium consumption and optoelectronic devices for 26%, spanning defence, aerospace, telecommunications, high-performance computing and consumer electronics.
China, with 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025/2026). The remaining primary producers outside China are Japan and Russia. Germany, Hungary and Kazakhstan ceased primary production in 2016, 2015 and 2013; Ukraine most likely ceased in 2022.
China accounts for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production (USGS). High-purity refining is more geographically distributed, but the upstream primary feed remains overwhelmingly China-centred.
Extreme. China imposed export controls on gallium in August 2023, banned all gallium exports to the United States in December 2024, and lifted the ban for one year in November 2025. The United States has had no domestic primary gallium production since 1987 and is 100% import-reliant. Prices in China rose about 58% from June 2023 to June 2024 on control fears.
Gallium is a byproduct metal with no dedicated mines. China produces 99% of the world's primary low-purity gallium. Its compounds, gallium arsenide and gallium nitride, power the semiconductors in radar, 5G, satellites and AI hardware, which makes gallium one of the most concentrated chokepoints in the global technology chain.
Gallium is a soft, silvery metal recovered almost entirely as a byproduct of processing bauxite into alumina and, to a lesser extent, from zinc ores. It has no dedicated mines. Gallium's value comes from its compounds: gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN), semiconductors that work at higher frequencies, voltages and temperatures than silicon.
Gallium arsenide and gallium nitride semiconductors for integrated circuits and optoelectronic devices: laser diodes, LEDs, photodetectors and solar cells. In the United States, integrated circuits account for 73% of gallium consumption and optoelectronic devices for 26%, spanning defence, aerospace, telecommunications, high-performance computing and consumer electronics.
China, with 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025/2026). The remaining primary producers outside China are Japan and Russia. Germany, Hungary and Kazakhstan ceased primary production in 2016, 2015 and 2013; Ukraine most likely ceased in 2022.
