The idea that no one builds a mine "just for gallium" ignores what’s happening on the ground. Nimy is targeting a primary gallium system—rare, yes, but exactly why it’s valuable. It’s not a byproduct model like Tsumeb or MTM. It’s high-grade, early-stage, and in a Tier 1 jurisdiction.
And speaking of primary gallium plays—look at what Sinomine just announced. $223M into a polymetallic recovery project in Namibia, specifically to extract 33t of germanium, 11t of gallium, and 10,900t of zinc annually. That’s a Chinese state-backed company betting big on strategic metals—not waiting for “byproduct economics.”
Why? Because China controls >90% of global gallium supply, and the West is scrambling to diversify. If even China is expanding gallium recovery outside its borders, it says a lot about where demand, price pressure, and geopolitics are heading.
We’re past the point of “gallium only works as a byproduct.” If Nimy proves up its resource and the metallurgy stacks up, the market will take notice—and they won’t be alone.
Bottom Line
Tsumeb is a clever reprocessing project, squeezing strategic metals out of slag—but it’s not scalable beyond what’s already there. It's a circular economy play, but not a long-term supply answer.
Nimy, on the other hand, is exploring a primary high-grade deposit that could become a scalable, long-term source of gallium—exactly what Western supply chains need as they try to wean off China’s dominance.
So while Sinomine recovers gallium from waste, Nimy is potentially discovering it in the ground at grades that are already higher than most known byproduct sources.
