Germanium

Overview

Germanium is a brittle, silvery-white semi-metal in group 14 of the periodic table, below silicon. It was isolated in 1886 by Clemens Winkler, who named it after Germany. It is a semiconductor and is transparent to infrared radiation, and its oxide has a high refractive index; these properties underpin its main uses.¹

Supply is the main concern: China is the leading producer and exporter of germanium metal, and it has required export licenses since 2023.² It is on the US list of critical minerals, and the EU classes it as both a critical and a strategic raw material.³⁴

Where it comes from

Germanium ores are extremely rare. Commercial germanium is recovered from zinc smelter flue dusts and from the by-products of coal combustion.¹ The US government classifies it as a by-product of zinc and of coal fly ash.³ Known resources are associated with certain zinc and lead-zinc-copper sulfide ores and with lignite coal deposits.²

Only a few countries process or recycle germanium commercially: the United States, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany and Russia, with China the leading producer. Because most producers do not report output, the USGS does not publish world production or reserve figures, so no production chart is shown here. Germanium-rich deposits and tailings in operation or development are located in China, Congo (Kinshasa), Russia and the United States.²

The European Commission's 2023 criticality assessment found that China accounted for 83% of global germanium supply at the processing stage, and that Germany and Belgium together processed about 7%.⁵

In the United States, a mine in Alaska produced germanium-bearing zinc concentrates in 2025, some of which were shipped to a refinery in Canada for germanium recovery. A Tennessee mine that also produced germanium-bearing zinc concentrates has been suspended since November 2023.²

What it is used for

The main US end uses, in descending order, are fiber optics, infrared optics, semiconductor applications and solar cells, and radiation detectors.²

• Fiber optics. Germanium dioxide and germanium tetrachloride are consumed in making the glass for optical fibers used in data networks and telecommunications.²
• Infrared optics. Germanium metal is made into lenses and windows for infrared optical systems in commercial and government markets.²
• Space solar cells. Germanium wafers are used as substrates for multijunction solar cells used in space; a company in Utah produces such wafers mostly for satellite solar cells.²
• Electronics and detectors. Germanium compounds are used to make germane gas for some semiconductor and solar cell manufacturing, and high-purity germanium is used in radiation detectors.²

Other uses include wide-angle camera lenses, microscope objectives, alloys and catalysts.¹

Grades and forms

Germanium is traded mainly as high-purity metal and as dioxide, and is consumed as tetrachloride, wafers and finished optics. China's export controls cover metal, zone-refined ingots, zinc germanium phosphide, epitaxial growth substrates, germanium dioxide and germanium tetrachloride.⁶

Trade and policy

The United States has no primary refinery production of germanium and relied on imports for more than half of its consumption in 2025. In 2021–24 its combined imports of metal and dioxide came from Belgium (41%), China (23%), Canada (17%) and Germany (14%).²

The 2025 suspension did not remove germanium from China's export control list, so exporters still need a license from Beijing for foreign sales.⁹ China's reported exports of germanium metal in January to September 2025 were 7,520 kg, down from 18,787 kg in the same period of 2024 and 36,656 kg in 2023. Most 2025 exports went to Russia (28%), Belgium (26%), Germany (26%) and Japan (18%).²

In August 2025 the US Department of Energy announced funding initiatives that included the refining of germanium for semiconductors and the recovery of by-product germanium from existing industrial processes.²

This section is factual background, not legal or trade-compliance advice.

Recycling and substitution

Much of the germanium removed when machining infrared optics is recycled as new scrap. Infrared lenses and windows from decommissioned military equipment, wastes from optical fiber manufacture and germanium solar cell wafers are also recycled. Data are insufficient to estimate how much secondary germanium is produced.²

Silicon or gallium arsenide can replace germanium in some electronic applications, and chalcogenide glass is used instead of germanium metal in some infrared optics. Antimony and titanium compounds substitute for germanium as polymerization catalysts.²

Sources

1. Germanium: element information, properties and uses. Royal Society of Chemistry, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Germanium. U.S. Geological Survey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals (90 FR 50494). Federal Register, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²

4. EU critical raw materials. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (RMIS), accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

5. Study on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU 2023 – Final Report. European Commission, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

6. MOFCOM and GAC Announcement No. 23 of 2023 on export controls on gallium- and germanium-related items. Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. MOFCOM Announcement No. 46 of 2024 on strengthening export controls on dual-use items to the United States. Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

8. MOFCOM Announcement No. 72 of 2025 on adjusting the implementation of Announcement No. 46 of 2024. Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

9. China halts ban on gallium, germanium, antimony exports to US, but controls remain. Reuters via Engineering News, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩