# Critical minerals: gallium, germanium, indium, tungsten, beryllium

Part ID: 10.08 · Layer 10 (Materials & upstream inputs)

A group of minor metals — gallium, germanium, indium, tungsten and beryllium — used in semiconductors, optics, thermal interface materials and specialty alloys, with supply concentrated in China and subject to export controls.

Each of these five elements plays a narrow but hard-to-substitute role somewhere in the chain: gallium in compound-semiconductor power devices and substrates, germanium in infrared optics and certain fiber and detector applications, indium in solder and thermal-interface materials used at the chip and cold-plate interface (Layers 1, 5), tungsten in high-density and high-melting-point alloys, and beryllium in specialty alloys and RF components. What ties them together for an investor is not end use but supply structure: production, and especially refining, of several of these elements is concentrated in China, and export licensing requirements have periodically restricted shipments, creating a supply risk that is geopolitical rather than geological.
Reserves of gallium, germanium and indium in particular exist more widely than current refining capacity does, so the near-term constraint is processing capacity and trade policy rather than resource scarcity. AI hardware is a small but growing draw on this group, mainly through power semiconductors, optics and thermal-interface-material formulations rather than bulk consumption. For investors, this is a policy-and-substitution watch: export-control announcements, the pace of non-Chinese refining capacity coming online, and how quickly device makers qualify substitute materials or alternative chemistries where possible.

**AI delta:** AI hardware adds a growing draw on this group through compound-semiconductor power devices, optics and thermal-interface formulations, layering additional demand onto a supply base already concentrated and subject to export licensing.

## Companies

| Company | Role | Confidence | Ownership | Ticker | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5N Plus | manufacturer | inferred | public | VNP.TO |  |
| Almonty | manufacturer | inferred | public | AII.TO | tungsten |
| Materion | manufacturer | inferred | public | MTRN | beryllium |
| Teck | manufacturer | inferred | public | TECK | germanium |
| Umicore | manufacturer | inferred | public | UMI.BR |  |
| Indium | manufacturer | inferred | private |  |  |
| Nyrstar | manufacturer | inferred | private |  | Trafigura |

Confidence tags: disclosed = company/filing statement; reported = trade press or partner list; inferred = taxonomy lead.