Challenge
Gallium is an essential ingredient in semiconductors, energy systems, and defense equipment but China currently controls more than 95 percent of the global gallium supply and has restricted access through strict export controls. Because gallium is not mined directly but rather recovered through alumina refining or through the “tailings” or waste generated from other mining operations, advanced technologies are vital to increasing recovery.
Solution and Impact
DFC committed $5 million in project development support to help Cerro de Pasco Resources Inc. advance a tailings reprocessing project in the central highlands of Peru, potentially for later DFC debt or equity financing. DFC’s project development will support a feasibility study and an engineering, environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the Quiulacocha Tailings Storage Facility to enhance processing technologies and refining capacity.
The Cerro de Pasco project covers approximately 70 million tonnes of tailings produced over more than a century of mining silver, zinc, copper, lead and gold. These tailings include a mix of metals which may include viable amounts of gallium as well as other key resources such as zinc, lead, and silver. The tailings also contain iron sulfide that can be used to produce sulfuric acid, which is an essential input to phosphate fertilizer, as well as to the processing of copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium.
While increased recovery from the Cerro de Pasco site could significantly strengthen critical mineral supply chains in the Western Hemisphere and help reduce dependence on minerals from China, DFC’s participation in a large-scale tailings reprocessing project could also serve as a model for future remediation efforts and expand the production of strategically important critical minerals.
This project was profiled in 2026.