ARBOK-GALLIUM: Recovering Pure Gallium from Bayer Liquor and Red Mud Without Resins by Vacuum Separation

Gallium is a small-volume critical metal on which radio-frequency chips, radar and satellite electronics depend: about 90% of the world's radio-frequency chips are built on gallium arsenide, about 98% of primary gallium is produced in China, and the market is only around 900 tonnes a year. At the same time gallium is already present in every Bayer alumina plant, dissolved in the circulating caustic liquor at a ratio of about 1 part per 450 parts of alumina and lying in more than 4 billion tonnes of stored red mud. Resin-based recovery exists, but resins are consumables, are made by a handful of producers and generate acid and alkaline effluent at regeneration, so most plants do not use it. We describe ARBOK-GALLIUM, an application of ARBOK Zero Water Discharge (ZWD) vacuum separation at about 1 kPa and ambient temperature, followed by a closed-loop acid stage and electrolytic deposition of metal. No resins or imported consumables are used, the caustic is returned to the refinery cycle, and red mud is treated in the same loop. The producer's economics rest on water, soda and avoided storage costs, with gallium as an addition on top. Keywords: gallium, Bayer process, red mud, critical materials, vacuum separation, zero liquid discharge, alumina refining, ARBOK ZWD