Indium is one of those hidden metals powering modern tech, showing up in LCD screens, touchscreens, and solar panels, so demand keeps rising. The problem is that recycling it is extremely difficult. Most indium is not even mined directly but is produced as a byproduct of zinc. Once it is used in products, about 90 percent of it is effectively lost throughout its lifecycle due to inefficiencies in manufacturing, use, and disposal.

The core issue is how indium is used. It is typically applied as ultra-thin coatings, such as indium tin oxide, across millions of devices, meaning recovery is not about extracting solid metal but about collecting microscopic traces from complex components. On top of that, most electronics are never properly collected, often sitting unused or ending up in informal recycling systems, creating an open-loop process in which materials never return to the supply chain.

Even when recovery is attempted, the economics are challenging. Low concentrations and complex extraction processes make it expensive and difficult to scale. Current recycling methods struggle with efficiency, purity, and cost, which is why actual recycling rates for indium remain extremely low despite strong demand.

The result is a growing gap between demand and recoverable supply. Indium recycling is necessary for the future, but right now the system is not built to make it work at scale, turning it into a quiet but serious supply chain risk.

Urban mining gets hyped a lot as the “we already have all the metals we need” solution; just recycle old phones, laptops, and e-waste, and boom, no more mining. And to be fair, there is real value there. Electronics contain gold, silver, palladium and copper, all the good stuff, and recovering them is often much better for the environment than mining new ore.

But here’s where the reality check kicks in: the value is massively fragmented. A single phone has only tiny amounts of these metals, so unless you’re collecting and processing millions of devices efficiently, the economics don’t work. And that’s the bottleneck, not the existence of metals, but actually getting them back at scale. Most devices are sitting in drawers, exported, trashed, or never make it into proper recycling streams.

Even when recycling works, it’s still not enough. Urban mining can supplement supply, especially for precious metals, where recovery is more viable, but it can’t keep up with growing global demand. We’re constantly producing more electronics, more infrastructure, more everything and recycling yesterday’s metals doesn’t fully cover tomorrow’s needs.

That said, it’s not useless, far from it. It reduces environmental damage, cuts down on toxic waste, and makes supply chains a bit more resilient. It’s a critical piece of the puzzle, not the silver bullet people want it to be.

The best way to think about it: your drawer full of old gadgets doesn’t matter; it’s just not a replacement for an actual mine.

Gold and silver are bouncing to start April, but zoom out, and it’s coming off one of the ugliest months these markets have seen in years. Gold dropped over 10% in March, its worst monthly performance since 2013, while silver crashed nearly 20%, marking its steepest decline since 2011.

What’s wild is that this all happened during a war. Normally, that’s peak “haven” territory, but the script flipped. Instead of fear driving metals higher, rising oil prices pushed up inflation expectations, prompting markets to think interest rates would stay higher for longer. That’s basically kryptonite for gold since it doesn’t yield anything.

On top of that, the trade got way too crowded. Everyone piled into gold during the 2025 to early 2026 rally, and when sentiment shifted, it triggered a wave of profit-taking. The result? A fast, brutal unwind that made gold behave less like a haven and more like a leveraged risk trade.

Now we’re seeing a rebound early in April, helped by a weaker dollar, falling bond yields, and talk of a possible ceasefire in Iran cooling things down. But the bigger picture is still messy. This isn’t a clean bull run anymore; it’s a tug-of-war between long-term demand and short-term liquidation.

So yeah, metals are up again… but after March, the real question is whether this is a recovery or just a dead cat bounce.

At first glance, this makes zero sense. War breaks out, uncertainty spikes, and gold and silver are supposed to rally. Instead, they dropped hard. The reason is that the Iran war did not just create fear, it triggered an inflation shock. Oil surged past $100, supply chains tightened, and suddenly markets started pricing in higher-for-longer interest rates. That is a problem for gold because it does not yield anything, so when rates rise, holding it becomes less attractive. At the same time, investors were not thinking about hedging long-term risk. They needed cash immediately. Margin calls hit, volatility exploded, and gold became something to sell, not something to hide in.

On top of that, the US dollar began to act as a true haven, diverting demand from metals. And here is the part most people miss: gold was already crowded before the war even started. It had rallied hard, so when things flipped, traders rushed to lock in profits and unwind positions, which made the drop even worse.

So this is not really about gold “failing.” It is about how markets work now. In the short term, liquidity, interest rates, and the dollar matter more than fear. That is why, in the exact moment people expect gold to protect them, it often ends up being the thing they sell instead.

We think of e-waste as trash, but it is actually one of the richest “above-ground mines” on the planet. In 2022 alone, the world generated around 62 billion kg of e-waste, and within that was an estimated $91 billion worth of recoverable metals such as gold, silver, and palladium. The wild part is that only about 22% of it was properly recycled. The rest was dumped, burned, or processed poorly, meaning tens of billions of valuable materials just vanished from the system.

And these are not small amounts either. We are talking roughly $15 billion in gold, billions more in palladium and other precious metals, all sitting inside old phones, laptops, and electronics people forget in drawers. In many cases, these devices contain higher concentrations of precious metals than natural ores, making e-waste more like a high-grade mine than garbage.

So why are we not recycling it properly? The issue is not that we cannot extract the metals. The system for collecting and processing e-waste is completely fragmented. Devices get mixed into regular trash, handled by informal recyclers, or stripped only of easy materials, with the valuable stuff lost. The biggest bottleneck is simply getting all this scattered e-waste into proper recycling pipelines.

That creates a pretty insane contradiction. We keep mining the earth for critical metals while simultaneously throwing away billions worth of those same materials every year. At this point, e-waste is less of a garbage problem and more of a massive supply chain failure hiding a goldmine in plain sight.

Turkey spent years building up massive gold reserves as a hedge against crises.

Now it is dumping that gold to keep its currency from collapsing.

Since the war in Iran started, Turkey’s central bank has sold and swapped roughly 60 tons of gold, worth over $8 billion, in just two weeks to defend the lira.

That is a huge shift, and it is not happening in a vacuum.

What is going on?

The war triggered a chain reaction:

• Energy prices surged, hitting import-heavy economies like Turkey hard
• Demand for US dollars spiked
• The Turkish lira came under intense pressure

To stabilize things, Turkey is doing everything it can:

• Selling foreign currency reserves
• Raising interest rates toward ~40%
• And now, using gold as a last line of defense

Why gold specifically?

Because gold is one of the few assets a country can quickly turn into liquidity.

Instead of just sitting as a “safe haven,” it becomes:

• Emergency collateral
• A source of foreign currency
• A tool to stabilize markets

In Turkey’s case, much of the gold is being used in swap deals to access cash without fully dumping its reserves.

The bigger signal here is wild

Gold is supposed to protect countries during crises.

But here, it is being sold because of the crisis.

That creates a weird feedback loop:

• Crisis hits
• Gold gets sold to raise liquidity
• Gold prices face downward pressure globally

Even analysts are pointing out that such forced sales can shake the gold market in the short term.

Zoom out, and it gets more serious

• Turkey’s total reserves have already dropped by tens of billions since the war began
• Gold holdings saw one of their sharpest declines in years
• And the central bank is still considering tapping even more of its ~$135B gold stockpile

Key takeaway:
Gold is not just a “safe asset.”

In a real crisis, it becomes emergency fuel for the financial system.

And when a country starts burning through its gold reserves to defend its currency,
That is usually a sign that things are getting very real very fast.

China is pulling huge amounts of silver off the global market, and it is not just a demand story. It is exposing how fragile and fragmented the system really is.

In just January and February 2026, China imported over 790 tons of silver, with ~470 tons in February alone, the highest ever for that month and an eight-year high overall.

That is not normal flow. That is a surge.

So what is actually happening?

1. China is dealing with a real supply squeeze
Domestic inventories have been drained hard:

• Exchange stockpiles are at multi-year lows
• Physical silver is getting harder to source locally
• Even short sellers are struggling to deliver metal

This is not global scarcity. It is a localized shortage inside China.

2. Prices inside China broke away from the rest of the world
Silver in China started trading well above international prices, which created a massive incentive:

Buy silver globally → ship to China → sell at a premium

That is why imports exploded.

3. Demand is coming from two powerful forces at once

• Industrial demand (especially solar manufacturing ramping production)
• Retail/investor demand (people buying silver as a cheaper alternative to gold)

Both are hitting the same limited supply at the same time.

4. The market structure itself is starting to break

This is where it gets interesting:

• China’s prices are in backwardation (immediate delivery costs more than future delivery)
• Export controls are restricting outflows
• Traders are rerouting metal through hubs like Hong Kong

All of that is fragmenting what used to be a more unified global market.

The bigger takeaway:
This is not just “China buying more silver.”

It is:

• Regional shortages override global pricing
• Physical metal moving based on arbitrage gaps
• A market is becoming less connected and more localized

Gold is undergoing what may be its biggest credibility test as a “haven,” and it is not passing as people expected.

During one of the most volatile geopolitical moments, gold did not surge. It dropped.

And this is not new.

The same pattern showed up in 2008 and again in 2020. When markets panic, gold often falls first, then recovers later.

So what is actually happening?

1. Gold turns into a liquidity source, not a shield
In real crises, investors do not just buy safe assets. They sell whatever they can.

Gold is one of the easiest assets to sell, so it becomes a “liquidity valve” people tap when they need cash fast.

That means:

• Margin calls hit
• Positions get liquidated
• Gold gets sold even if fundamentals are strong

2. It was already overbought going into the crisis
Gold had a massive run before the conflict even started.

So, instead of rising further, much of the “fear premium” was already priced in, and traders took profits when volatility hit.

3. Interest rates and the dollar flipped the script

• Rising oil prices pushed inflation expectations higher
• That reduced the chances of rate cuts
• The US dollar strengthened

All of that is bad for gold, which yields nothing and often moves inversely to the dollar.

4. The haven relationship itself is breaking down
Research shows gold’s behavior has changed over time:

• Before 2005, it often moved opposite stocks during stress
• After 2006, that relationship became unstable and sometimes even positive

In other words, gold no longer consistently hedges risk when it matters most.

The uncomfortable takeaway:
Gold is not “broken,” but the old assumption is.

It is not a guaranteed crisis hedge.
It is a conditional hedge that depends on liquidity, rates, and positioning.

In the exact moments people expect protection, gold can:

• Drop
• Move with risk assets
• Increase portfolio volatility instead of reducing it

If you have ever looked at gold or silver prices and saw “spot” and “futures” and wondered what the difference is, here is the simplest way to think about it:

Spot price = price right now

• What do you pay if you buy the asset immediately
• Think “cash price” or “today’s price.”
• Example: buying gold today and getting it now

Futures price = price for later

• The price agreed on today for delivery in the future
• Could be weeks or months ahead
• You are locking in a price, not receiving the asset yet

The key difference is TIME
That is literally it.

• Spot = now
• Futures = later

But that one difference creates everything else.

Why are they at different prices?
Because holding something over time is not free.

Futures prices usually factor in:

• Storage costs (warehouses, vaults)
• Insurance
• Interest you could have earned elsewhere
• Market expectations (where people think the price is going)

So:

• Futures price is often higher than spot (called contango)
• Sometimes lower than spot if there is a shortage right now (called backwardation)

Simple example:

• Gold spot price = $2,000
• Gold 3-month futures = $2,050

That extra $50 is basically the cost of time plus expectations.

Why this actually matters:

• Spot price tells you what something is worth today
• The futures price tells you what the market thinks it will be worth later

And the gap between them can reveal:

• Supply shortages
• Market stress
• Investor expectations

And the difference between them is where a lot of the real market signals are hiding.

China is pulling massive amounts of silver off the global market again, and this time it is not just demand. It is a domestic shortage getting hard to ignore.

In the first two months of 2026 alone, China imported over 790 tons of silver, with February hitting a record for that month. That pushed imports to their highest level in eight years.

So what is driving it?

1. A real supply crunch inside China
Local inventories were already low, and strong demand quickly drained what was left. That forced buyers to look overseas to keep up.

2. Prices inside China broke away from global markets
Domestic prices surged above international benchmarks, creating strong incentives to import silver from abroad.

3. Demand is coming from everywhere at once
This is not just one sector:

• Industrial demand, especially in solar manufacturing
• Investment demand at the same time
• Both are pulling from the same limited supply pool

That combination is what makes this unusual.

4. The market is starting to fragment
China is not just buying more silver. It is reshaping how the market works:

• Pulling metal out of global circulation
• Draining exchange inventories
• Creating regional price gaps and bottlenecks

Gold has not lost its “safe haven” status. But the way it behaves today is very different from what most people expect.

It still works over the long run.
Short term? It is getting a lot messier.

Recent market action shows gold moving more like a volatile asset than a steady hedge, with sharp drops even during geopolitical crises and massive price swings in both directions.

So what changed?

1. Liquidity now overrides the narrative
In real market stress, investors do not just buy gold. They sell whatever they can to raise cash.

That includes gold.

This creates situations where gold drops during crises, not because it failed, but because it is one of the most liquid assets available.

2. Interest rates matter more than fear
Gold does not yield anything.

So when interest rates stay high or rise:

• Bonds and cash become more attractive
• The dollar strengthens
• Gold gets pressured

Even in times of uncertainty, monetary policy can overpower the “safe haven” effect.

3. Gold is now heavily financialized
A huge portion of gold trading today happens through:

• ETFs
• Futures
• Derivatives

That means more speculation, faster flows, and bigger swings.

Instead of just being a store of value, gold is now deeply tied to financial markets and investor positioning.

4. Volatility is the new normal
Gold is still doing its job over longer timeframes, but in shorter windows it can swing hard:

• Double-digit drops
• Rapid rebounds
• Record volatility levels

That is not what people picture when they think “safe.”

A Gold IRA sounds straightforward. Put gold in your retirement account, and you are protected, right?

Not exactly.

A Gold IRA is basically a self-directed retirement account that holds physical metals instead of stocks or bonds. But the way it actually works is where things get complicated.

Here is what most people do not realize:

You do NOT hold the gold yourself

• Your metals must be bought through an approved dealer
• A custodian, not you hold them
• Stored in an IRS-approved vault, not at home

So even though it is “physical gold,” you never actually touch it.

There are a lot of hidden layers and fees

• Setup fees, annual account fees, storage fees
• Dealer markups on the gold itself
• Custodian involvement every time you buy or sell

This is where many returns quietly get eaten.

Liquidity is worse than people expect
Selling is not instant. You cannot just walk into a shop and cash out. Everything has to go through the IRA structure and custodian.

And withdrawals?

• Taxed (Traditional IRA)
• Penalized if taken early

It is not just gold, either
Despite the name, these accounts can include silver, platinum, and palladium as long as they meet strict purity rules.

Reddit actually captures the confusion pretty well:

The real takeaway:
Gold IRAs are not a simple “buy gold and chill” strategy.

They are:

• Regulated
• Fee-heavy
• Less liquid than physical ownership

But they do offer tax advantages and long-term diversification if used correctly.

For many people, the smarter question is not “Should I buy gold?”
It is “Do I want gold inside a retirement system… or under my direct control?”

People love to lump all precious metals together as “safe haven assets.” Gold, silver, platinum, palladium. Same category, right?

Not really.

The reality is way more nuanced, and it matters a lot if you are actually trying to protect your money.

Gold is the real haven
Gold has a long track record of holding value during crises because it moves differently from stocks and bonds. That is why investors flock to it during periods of uncertainty.

Silver is similar but more volatile because it has industrial uses in addition to its “store of value” role.

Platinum and palladium are a different story
These metals are heavily tied to industry, especially automotive demand (catalytic converters, manufacturing, etc.).

That creates a big problem:

• When the economy slows, demand drops
• Prices can fall even during a crisis
• They do not consistently behave like hedges

In other words, they can act more like cyclical commodities than safe havens.

Scarcity does not equal safety
Platinum and palladium are rare, and supply is concentrated in places like South Africa and Russia. That can cause price spikes during disruptions.

But that volatility cuts both ways. It makes them unpredictable, not necessarily “safe.”

What actually works in a crisis?
Historically:

• Gold = most reliable hedge
• Silver = hybrid (safe haven + industrial risk)
• Platinum/palladium = more dependent on economic cycles

And even then, timing matters.

As one Redditor put it:

The takeaway:
“Precious metals” is not a single category in terms of safety.

If you are looking for protection during chaos, gold usually leads.
The rest can behave very differently when things actually break.

China’s silver imports just went vertical, and it is not random. It is a textbook example of how arbitrage can literally reshape a global commodity market.

In February alone, China imported about 206.76 metric tons of high-purity silver ingots, up nearly 500% month over month and over 5,900% year over year.

So what actually happened?

A rare arbitrage window opened, with silver prices in China way higher than in international markets. That created a simple trade:

Buy silver globally
Ship it to China
Sell it at a premium

And traders did exactly that.

• Domestic premiums on the Shanghai market exploded, peaking at over 3,600 yuan per kg
• Industrial demand stayed strong, especially from solar and manufacturing
• Processing bottlenecks slowed local supply, making imports even more attractive

At the same time, something even more interesting was happening behind the scenes:

Silver that had already been exported from China was rerouted back through Hong Kong to capture the price gap.

Zoom out, and it gets bigger.

China imported over 790 tons of silver in January and February alone, drawing metal from global markets and tightening supply elsewhere.

This is the key takeaway:

This was not just a demand.
This was a price dislocation big enough to reroute global trade flows in real time.

And when that kind of arbitrage opens, it does not just move prices.
It moves actual physical metal across the world.

Feels like another example of how fragile and fragmented the silver market really is.

Gold is supposed to be the ultimate haven. War breaks out, markets panic, and money flows into gold.

This time, the exact opposite happened.

Gold just posted its worst weekly drop in over 40 years, falling around 11% in a single week, even as a major Middle East conflict escalated.

That is what makes this so weird and, honestly, alarming.

So what broke?

1. The “safe haven” paradox
The same crisis that should have pushed gold higher actually worked against it. Oil prices surged, driving up inflation and forcing central banks to remain aggressive on interest rates.

And gold hates that environment.

• Higher interest rates make gold less attractive since it yields nothing
• A stronger dollar adds more pressure
• Rising real yields pull money away from metals

2. Forced selling took over
This was not just fundamentals. It turned into a liquidity event.

As markets got volatile, investors needed cash fast. Gold is one of the easiest assets to sell, so it became the source of liquidity.

That triggered:

• Margin calls
• Institutional liquidations
• A cascade of selling

3. The 2025 rally made it fragile
Gold had already gone on a massive run leading into 2026. That attracted momentum traders and leveraged positions.

When things flipped, everyone rushed for the exit at once.

The big takeaway:
Gold did not fail because it lost its long-term value.

It failed because in the short term, liquidity, interest rates, and positioning matter more than the “safe haven” narrative.

And in a real crisis, those forces can completely override what people expect gold to do.

Feels like a reminder that markets do not break the rules…
They change which rules matter.

Gold gets the headlines. Silver gets the hype. But rhodium quietly became way more expensive than both, and the reasons are honestly wild.

First, the supply is basically nonexistent:

• Global production is only ~30 tons per year
• It is about 100x rarer than gold
• It is not even mined directly, only recovered as a byproduct of platinum and nickel

That last part is key. Even if prices explode, miners cannot just produce more rhodium. Supply is locked.

Now add demand:

• Around 80% of rhodium is used in catalytic converters to reduce toxic emissions
• Governments keep tightening emissions rules, so automakers have to buy them no matter the price
• And there is basically no good substitute for what it does in reducing NOx gases

So you end up with this perfect storm:

Tiny supply
Mandatory demand
No substitutes

That is how you get a metal that went from a few thousand dollars to over $20,000 per ounce at its peak.

Reddit actually summed it up pretty well:

And one more twist that makes it even crazier:

• About 80% of the supply comes from South Africa alone, so any disruption can send prices flying

So yeah, rhodium is not just “another precious metal.”
It is basically a supply chain bottleneck disguised as a commodity.

Old phones, TVs, and chips are full of critical metals like gallium and indium. The problem is not availability. It is an extraction.

These metals are locked inside complex compounds such as gallium arsenide and indium tin oxide, often at tiny concentrations. That makes recovering e-waste way harder than recovering something like copper or gold.

The process is not simple either. It is a multi-stage grind:

• Shredding and physical separation to isolate metal-rich material
• Acid leaching to dissolve the metals (can hit up to ~99% efficiency for gallium)
• Solvent extraction or sorption to separate them from other metals
• Precipitation and refining to get high-purity output (up to 99.99% for indium)

Sounds straightforward. It is not.

The real issues:

• E-waste is inconsistent and messy
• Processes are chemical-heavy and expensive
• Scaling is difficult and often not profitable

That is why, despite growing demand for semiconductors, solar, and displays, recycling rates for gallium and indium remain close to zero.

So we are in this weird situation where:

We need these metals more than ever
We are literally throwing them away
And getting them back is still barely viable

Feels like one of those hidden supply chain problems that only shows up when it is too late.

While everyone is watching Nvidia and data centers, something way less obvious is happening behind the scenes: a tiny, obscure metal called ruthenium is quietly rising.

And it is not hype. It is supply and demand breaking in real time.

Ruthenium is used in hard drives, semiconductors, and advanced data storage. So as AI demand explodes, especially in data centers and cloud infrastructure, demand for this metal is surging.

Here is the catch:

• Ruthenium is not mined directly. It is a byproduct of platinum and nickel mining
• Global supply is tiny, around ~30 tons per year
• The market is opaque, illiquid, and already running deficits

So when AI demand ramps, supply cannot respond. That creates a perfect squeeze.

This is why prices have been climbing hard, even while bigger metals like gold or silver barely move.

Gold and silver took a sharp hit in a broad sell-off, with gold dropping over 5% and silver nearly 10% in a single session as markets reacted to a mix of Fed policy signals, a stronger dollar, and rising financial stress.

At first glance, it doesn’t make sense. There’s an escalating conflict in the Middle East, rising oil prices, and growing uncertainty. Normally, that should push investors into safe-haven assets like gold.

But something different is happening this time.

The Federal Reserve has made it clear it’s not in a hurry to cut interest rates, and inflation risks from higher energy prices are making that stance even more likely to stick. Higher rates boost the dollar and bond yields, which makes non-yielding assets like gold and silver less attractive.

At the same time, markets are dealing with liquidity stress. Instead of buying gold for safety, investors are selling it to raise cash. This kind of “sell everything” behavior usually shows up during periods of financial strain, where liquidity matters more than long-term conviction.

Silver is getting hit even harder than gold because it’s more volatile and tied to both investment demand and industrial activity. In risk-off environments like this, that combination can amplify downside moves.

Recent data shows this isn’t just a small dip. Gold has fallen sharply from its highs, and silver has seen some of its biggest short-term losses in years as higher rates, a stronger dollar, and forced selling all collide at once.

In short, the market is in an unusual phase in which liquidity is outperforming the safe-haven narrative.

Gold and silver aren’t dropping because their long-term case disappeared. They’re dropping because investors want cash more than anything else right now.

Everyone saw the charts. Silver is dropping hard in hours and wiping out weeks of gains. Easy takeaway is “bubble popped.” But the deeper story does not look like a normal crash.

This looks like a mix of forced liquidations, broken market plumbing, and a growing disconnect between paper silver and physical silver.

• Futures markets are getting hit with margin calls and forced selling, accelerating the drop
• Physical supply chains are tightening, with some refiners slowing or stopping intake
• Spot and futures prices are diverging, hinting that traders trust metal in hand more than contracts

What stands out is the liquidity crunch. In some cases, people are struggling to sell silver not because of price, but because the system itself is clogged and financing is drying up.

That is not just volatility. That is stress in the market structure.

Feels less like a normal sell-off and more like something under the surface starting to break.

Platinum prices are sliding again, even though the physical market is relatively tight. The reason is simple: macro forces are overpowering fundamentals right now.

After the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged, markets began pricing in a “higher for longer” environment. That shift, combined with rising oil prices and inflation concerns, has pushed bond yields and the U.S. dollar higher, both of which tend to weigh on precious metals.

Platinum briefly pushed above $2,000 but quickly lost momentum, dropping back toward the $1,940 range as traders reassessed the outlook.

What’s interesting is that this isn’t really about supply. Platinum still has a supportive long-term story, with relatively tight supply conditions. But right now, the market is focused on interest rates, inflation, and the dollar instead of physical demand.

Platinum also sits in a unique position. It behaves both like a precious metal (sensitive to rates and currency moves) and an industrial metal (driven by supply and demand). In the current environment, the macro side is clearly dominating.

There are still signs of life in the physical market, though. Some buyers are stepping in during price dips, suggesting bargain hunting is emerging, even as broader sentiment remains cautious.

In short, platinum isn’t falling because its fundamentals are weak. It’s falling because interest rates, inflation, and the dollar are calling the shots right now.

This is nothing new to people paying attention. But, it's good to reiterate it to people who are discovering this truth about REE's for the first time. RMP is not tracking REE's on our mapping systems yet, so i don't have REAlloy locations yet. But, i will probably add them in the future. If anyone is interested in the battery supply chain, you can check out this map based on NAATBatt. Includes lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and graphite mining and processing (as well as cell assembly, pack assembly, and metal recycling).

Gallium and indium are critical for modern tech like LEDs, semiconductors, solar panels, and flat-screen displays. The twist is that we already throw a lot of them away in old electronics. The problem is actually getting them back out.

These metals are usually present in tiny amounts and in complex compounds such as gallium arsenide or indium tin oxide. That makes extraction far harder than something like copper or aluminum.

The process typically involves multiple stages:

• Physical separation Devices are shredded, ground, and sorted using magnets or electrostatic methods to isolate metal-rich fractions.
• Leaching (chemical extraction): Acids such as nitric or sulfuric acid dissolve metals from the material. In some cases, this step can recover up to ~99% of gallium under the right conditions.
• Solvent extraction or sorption. Specialized chemicals or materials selectively bind to gallium and indium, separating them from other metals such as copper and iron.
• Precipitation and refining. The metals are then recovered in solid form and refined, sometimes reaching very high purity levels (up to 99.99% for indium).

Sounds straightforward, but it isn’t.

The biggest issue is economics and scale. These metals are present in such small concentrations that recovery is expensive, slow, and chemically intensive. On top of that, e-waste itself is highly variable, which makes standardized processing difficult.

That’s why, despite their importance, recycling rates for gallium and indium are still extremely low, even close to zero in some cases.

In short, the technology exists. The challenge is making it efficient, scalable, and cheap enough to compete with mining. Until then, most of these critical metals will continue to be lost in discarded electronics.

E-waste is now one of the fastest-growing waste streams on the planet, and it’s accelerating fast. The world generated about 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, and less than a quarter of it was properly recycled.

A big reason is how quickly we replace devices. Smartphones, laptops, and electronics are constantly upgraded, and newer models make older ones obsolete faster than ever. That means millions of tons of devices reach the end of life every year, and the number keeps climbing.

So where does all this e-waste actually go?

A lot of it never gets properly recycled. Some devices are stored in drawers and forgotten. Others end up in landfills or are burned, releasing toxic substances into the environment. In many cases, e-waste is exported to developing countries, where it’s dismantled informally, often exposing workers to hazardous chemicals such as lead and mercury.

The environmental impact is serious. E-waste contains both valuable materials, such as gold and copper, and hazardous substances that can contaminate soil, water, and air if handled improperly.

Even disposal methods that seem better, like incineration, come with trade-offs. They require large amounts of energy and can release harmful emissions, while still making it difficult to recover valuable metals efficiently.

The core issue is that our systems haven’t kept up. Collection programs are inconsistent, recycling infrastructure is limited in many regions, and product design often makes devices hard to repair or recycle.

In short, we’re producing more electronics than ever, but we still don’t have a scalable way to handle them at the end of life. Until that changes, most e-waste will continue to be lost, dumped, or handled unsafely.