When in August 2013, a news agency reported that Iranian researchers had produced gallium with 99 percent purity for the first time, the report received little or no attention.
An escalating trade war between China and the US over the exports of gallium and germanium, however, has generated unprecedented interest in the two strategic elements key to the manufacturing of semiconductors.
Gallium is used in radar and radio communication devices, satellites and LEDs. Germanium is used in high-speed computer chips, plastics and military applications such as night-vision devices, as well as satellite imagery sensors.
Gallium is found in trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite, and gallium metal is produced when processing bauxite to make aluminium. Germanium ores are rare and germanium is mostly produced as a by-product from zinc mining and coal fly ash.
Iran is among the countries with zinc, bauxite, aluminum and coal production and processing plants in abundance in all parts of the country.
A research paper accepted in the National Conference of Mineral Sciences in 2013 confirmed the existence of gallium in the alumina mines of Jajarm in Khorasan, coal mines of Eastern Alborz in Shahrud and lead mines of Angoran in Zanjan.
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