A SURVEY OF THE MARKET, SUPPLY AND AVAILABILITY OF GALLIUM Dr. Fred D. Rosi University of Virginia - Charlottesville, Virginia The major market for gallium is the electronics industry (see Table I), which requires the metal in its highest form of purity (99.9999%). The price for this grade of gallium is now $525/kg. The free-enterprise consumption of gallium is estimated to be 14,000 kg., and is not expected to increase significantly over the next few years despite the emergence of new electronic applications requiring gallium compounds, such as magnetic bubble memories and optical fiber telecommunications. Since the free world production capacity of gallium is about 25,000 kg., an over-supply situation now exists. This could be dramatically reversed with the widespread use of gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells in future terrestrial and space power systems. Bauxite ores containing 0.003-0.009% gallium account for over 90% of the world supply of gallium. Extraction efficiencies of 30-50% are realized with commercial processes (schematically depicted in Figure 1), and efficiencies as high as 80% are considered possible by modifications of these processes. The commercial extraction methods can provide gallium with a purity of 99.9% Conversion of this grade gallium to the high purity (6 nines) form requires additional processing, which raises the gallium price by at least $100/kg. In the free-enterprise world, the major suppliers of primary gallium are Alcoa in the United States and Alusuisse in Switzerland. These companies account for over 90% of the free world supply of gallium to meet current market needs. Data on the primary aluminum production from bauxite throughout the free- enterprise world suggest that approximately 1,370 metric tons of gallium were potentially available in 1978 by present extraction technologies and assuming an average content of 0.006% Ga in bauxite. Since the world production capacity of gallium is estimated to be 25 metric tons, less than 2% of the bauxite used in obtaining alumina for primary aluminum production was processed for gallium extraction. The 5 GW satellite power system using gallium arsenide solar cells, now under study by NASA, would require 390 metric tons of gallium. This represents a 1,600% increase over present free world production capacity (25 metric tons), and 28% of the potentially available gallium (1,370 metric tons) from bauxitic ores currently processed to produce primary aluminum. A network of such satellites would necessitate an essentially new gallium recovery industry, which would have to be coupled closely with the aluminum industry for economic reasons. Approximately 65% of the world bauxite comes from Australia, Guinea, Jamaica and Surinam (see Table II). Three of these countries also have large commercially proven reserves. Australia is now the major producer of bauxite with 26.5 million long tons in 1978. Its abundant commercial reserves serve to insure the free-enterprise world supply of bauxite for years to come. Guinea is the second major producer with 17 million long tons followed by Jamaica, which was the major bauxite producer until 1972. With its new discoveries of bauxite ores, Brazil may become a major producer within the next five years. The United States, which is the major producer of primary aluminum, depends heavily on
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