It was back in 2016 that the public sector aluminium manufacturer, NALCO, signed a memorandum of understanding with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for technology used to extract gallium, a useful rare metal, from Bayer (sodium aluminate) liquor, which is produced during alumina refining.

“Extraction of gallium from Bayer liquor will be NALCO’s first R&D project with BARC, with an objective to develop indigenous technology for this strategic metal, in national interest,” Tapan Kumar Chand, chairman of NALCO, had said in a 2016 press release. Bayer liquor typically contains some gallium.

Ten years down the line, nothing has happened. In a recent report on NALCO, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said the company told analysts that “a pilot plant is being set up to evaluate technical and commercial feasibility”.

Gallium is an important metal — “strategic”, as Chand said.

Emerging role

It has a major emerging role in semiconductors, as a superior alternative to silicon, because of which it also has a significant role in defence. Gallium nitride-based silicon chips can be 95 per cent smaller than silicon chips of the same functionality. For example, a 1,200 V device working on 30 amp current would be 30 sq mm with silicon; with gallium nitride (GaN), it would be just 2 sq mm. GaN chips also enable radars to “see” farther, as they can send more powerful signals. Since GaN can handle higher voltages and currents, it can transmit and receive stronger pulses — which means the radar’s signal travels farther into space to detect more distant targets.

NALCO is uniquely positioned to produce this critical metal for India, because the bauxite ore from Odisha that the company mines for aluminium production contains higher concentrations of gallium.

NALCO has not replied to businessline’s queries, despite repeated requests — so we do not have the details.

However, it is learnt that bauxite could hold 30-80 ppm of gallium. At a conservative estimate, about 20 tonnes of gallium production per year is not infeasible.

According to the website Strategic Metals Invest, the price of gallium has been rising year after year, from $274 a kg in January 2018 to $2,101 a kg today.

At a production rate of 20 tonnes a year, this translates into a revenue of about ₹400 crore. This is not much for a company whose turnover was ₹16,787 crore in 2024-25, but the production of gallium in India is of national “strategic” importance.

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Published on February 9, 2026