Canadian explorer reports extremely high levels of gallium
Gallium is one of those metals that even many commodity investors know little about, but which is of crucial or “critical” importance for military semiconductors and other advanced technology. Recently, the price of gallium shot up to its highest level since 2011 after China, which dominates the market as with many other commodities, imposed export restrictions.
According to the experts at Fastmarkets, the price of gallium, for which there is no spot market, reached USD 595 per kilogram on Friday, which represents a further increase of 17% compared to the last price calculation on December 11.
Earlier this month, the People’s Republic made it more difficult to export several metals, including gallium, to the US, which is seen as a sign of increasing tension in trade relations between the world’s two largest economies. According to the US Geological Survey, China was responsible for 98% of global gallium production last year.
China dominates the gallium market
The market for the easily liquefiable metal is comparatively small, but it is of great importance in semiconductor production and is also required for television and cell phone screens as well as solar cells and radar equipment.
The Chinese government introduced the first export controls on gallium back in August, which already caused prices to rise and severely disrupted trade flows. According to calculations by the Bloomberg news agency – based on Fastmarkets data – the price of gallium has more than doubled since then.
Gallium is mainly obtained as a by-product in the production of aluminum and zinc. The average content in the starting materials is relatively low, between 10 and 150 mg/kg depending on the raw material. Quite apart from the fact that the actual recovery also depends on the efficiency of the extraction process.
Canadian junior reports extremely high gallium levels
The gallium grades that Canadian Junior Cerro de Pasco Resources (CSE: CDPR; OTCQB: GPPRF; FRA: N8HP) recently reported from its Quiulacocha project in Peru are therefore all the more remarkable. In addition to an average silver grade of 53.64 g/t, Cerro de Pasco recently reported an average grade of 34.61 g/t gallium!
This is the average value from the analysis of 177 samples taken from nine of 40 drill holes recently completed by the company on the Quiulacocha project. However, it should be noted that this is not a typical hard rock exploration project, but that Cerro de Pasco Resources is drilling on massive waste rock tailings.
These originate from high-grade, historical mining and lay fallow for decades until Cerro de Pasco received approval for their exploration and later on exploitation, this year. The company is already conducting metallurgical studies to produce concentrates, which could include gallium and the critical mineral indium, which is also present.
Guy Goulet, CEO of Cerro de Pasco Resources, sees “the potential for valuable by-products in the planned concentrates” in the detection of elements such as gallium and indium, which, as he explains, are of crucial importance for advanced 5G technologies, robotics and nuclear medicine. It will therefore be interesting to see whether the other pending drill results from the Quiulacocha tailings confirm the extremely high gallium content.
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