> WICOP 3 generates white light from gallium nitride (GaN) alone.

Gallium might be a problem. "China accounted for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production. The remaining primary low-purity gallium producers outside of China included Japan and Russia. Germany, Hungary, and Kazakhstan ceased primary production in 2016, 2015, and 2013, respectively. Ukraine most likely ceased primary production in 2022. Several new gallium production projects were announced including those in Australia, Canada, Greece, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Korea."[1]

The price of gallium has increased by a factor of 10 in the last 10 years. It's doubled since last year.[2] A huge new demand for gallium is going to be a problem.

[1] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-gallium.pd...

[2] https://strategicmetalsinvest.com/gallium-prices/

This is why I laugh every time somebody seriously suggests there's going to be a war with China because the West would collapse without Chinese exports. It's just not going to happen.

The problem with outsourcing all your manufacturing so you can mildly increase profits and destroy any organized labor is that whoever you outsourced it to holds you hostage.

Any talk of this is just propaganda to sell weapons and increase the "defense" budget.

So gallium is a byproduct of bauxite mining but requires some sophistication. China produces 60% of the world's aluminum. India is the second largest producer but doesn't have the infrastructure to extract gallium. That will probably change. But it is a sophisticated process so you need an entire supply chain for that too. China has that. India does not (currently).

But India would avoid the geopolitical issues of being dependent on China or Russia.

Is it just uneconomic to extract it in other countries? It seems to be a byproduct of aluminum and zinc mining, and those mines are very widespread.

Canada's is a addon to the aluminum production line, ao it might not take a whole ton to expand that production