From The Register, July 3:
Don't panic but beware the blowback effect
China is imposing export restrictions on two elements used in semiconductors and other electronic components, a move likely to be viewed as a calculated response to Western restrictions on sales of chips and their production tech to the Middle Kingdom.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce released a statement announcing that Beijing has decided to implement export controls on gallium and germanium, as well as some compounds containing these elements, such as indium gallium arsenide, phosphorus germanium zinc, and silicon chip building tech Ge epitaxial growth substrate.
This means that anyone wishing to export these materials, from China will first have to submit an application to the Ministry of Commerce and obtain permission to do so. This is necessary "in order to safeguard national security and interests," the statement said. These measures are set to come into force as of August 1.
Gallium and germanium are both materials for which China is the largest global source. For example, China is said to be responsible for around 60 percent of the world's germanium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, with the remainder coming from Canada, Finland, Russia and the United States.
The situation is even worse for gallium, with 80 percent of this coming from China, while gallium arsenide – the second most common semiconductor in use today – is only produced at the requisite quality by a few companies in the world, just one of which is in Europe.
Applications of germanium include fiber-optic systems, infrared optics, solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), while those of gallium are said to include microwave and high-speed switching circuits....
....MUCH MORE
Fifteen years ago today I was writing:July 3, 2008
Solar: Peak Gallium? Indium?
Paul Erlich has a book out, forty years after 'The Population Bomb', folks are mentioning The Club of Rome, forty years after its founding and 36 years after 'The Limits to Growth'. Any moment I expect Julian Simon to arise from the grave with prop bets. Anywho, here's a year-old story that might be relevant today. From New Scientist via Nova (Australia):
"I get excited every time I see a street cleaner," says Hazel Prichard....This excursion was prompted by a brief essay at Asimov's.com, "Reflections: The Death of Gallium"....
...Armin Reller, a materials chemist at the University of Augsburg in Germany, and his colleagues are among the few groups who have been investigating the problem. He estimates that we have, at best, 10 years before we run out of indium. Its impending scarcity could already be reflected in its price: in January 2003 the metal sold for around $60 per kilogram; by August 2006 the price had shot up to over $1000 per kilogram.Take the metal gallium, which along with indium is used to make indium gallium arsenide. This is the semiconducting material at the heart of a new generation of solar cells that promise to be up to twice as efficient as conventional designs. Reserves of both metals are disputed, but in a recent report René Kleijn, a chemist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, concludes that current reserves "would not allow a substantial contribution of these cells" to the future supply of solar electricity. He estimates gallium and indium will probably contribute to less than 1 per cent of all future solar cells - a limitation imposed purely by a lack of raw material....MORE
