Gallium, used in smartphones, radar kit and much in between, punches way above its weight. Selling for pennies above production costs, many producers outside of Asia bowed out of the metal at the end of the noughties when China began expanding capacity. China now controls 98 per cent of primary low-purity gallium production, according to the US Geological Survey. Buyers in the rest of the world were left reeling when Beijing imposed export controls last year.
That has sparked a near-doubling of gallium prices in Europe and constrained access to a key mineral for chips with civil and military applications.
您已阅读22%（612字），剩余78%（2132字）包含更多重要信息，订阅以继续探索完整内容，并享受更多专属服务。