Investment Notes: Gega Elements

Gega Elements is developing a novel, low-carbon process to extract gallium and germanium, two strategically vital elements, from industrial waste streams. By turning red mud, zinc residue and related streams into high-purity gallium and germanium, Gega is addressing a key sovereign capability gap for Australia.

Today, I’m pleased to share more about why we invested in Gega Elements. Our investment is part of Gega’s pre-seed round (A$925,000 total), alongside Flying Fox Ventures and Salus Ventures. This also serves as our second investment through the TRaCE andInvestible co-investment program.

We see Gega’s mission as much more than a compelling business case; it’s a nationally significant endeavor to secure supply of critical materials essential for Australia’s clean energy transition and national security readiness.

Strategic Importance of Gallium and Germanium

Gallium (Ga) and germanium(Ge) might not be household names, but they are indispensable ingredients in the technologies powering the future. These two elements are essential to advanced semiconductors and photonics, critical for AI, national security, and clean energy technologies, underpinning everything from AI data centres to solar panels on satellites in space. Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategy highlights gallium and germanium as strategically important minerals; key enablers of modern electronics and national security applications

To understand their reach:

• Semiconductors: Gallium-based compounds (like gallium nitride and gallium arsenide) are used in advanced microchips and high-frequency electronics.

• Photonics & Optics: Germanium is a crucial material for infrared optics (e.g. night-vision systems), and both Ga and Ge are used in laser diodes and fiber-optic communication systems.

• Clean Energy: Gallium and germanium appear in high-efficiency solar cells (multi-junction photovoltaics) and power electronics for electric vehicles.    

• Defence Electronics: From gallium nitride radar modules to germanium-based thermal imaging lenses, both elements have numerous  military applications.

In short, if it involves high-performance electronics or optical systems, gallium and germanium often play a part. Their unique properties (gallium’s ability to form high-efficiency compound semiconductors, germanium’s superb infrared transparency, etc.) make them irreplaceable in many cutting-edge applications. Securing a reliable supply of these materials is critical to Australia’s clean energy ambitions and sovereign capability.

Global Dependence and Supply ChainFragility

The catch with gallium and germanium is that despite their importance, their supply chains are remarkably fragile. Both are typically recovered only as minor by-products of base metal mining (such as zinc and bauxite refining), resulting in small markets with highly concentrated supply chains dominated by a single country. Today, China is overwhelmingly the world’s leading processor of gallium and germanium, refining an estimated ~80–90% of global supply. For years, countries likeAustralia have effectively been entirely reliant on Chinese refineries for these elements.

This concentration presents a serious strategic vulnerability. In mid-2023, China’s government imposed new export licensing restrictions on gallium and germanium, citing national security interests. Then in late 2024, Beijing went a step further and banned exports of these materials to certain countries outright. Those moves sent shockwaves through high-tech industries, and served as a wake-up call that access to gallium and germanium can be cut off at a moment’s notice by geopolitics.

For Australia, which currently has no domestic refining capacity for these minerals, this status quois untenable. Our clean energy sector and national security industry cannot afford to be beholden to a foreign supply that might be restricted or diverted.Ensuring an onshore supply of gallium and germanium has thus become an issue of national interest and resilience. As RareX’s Managing Director James Durrant aptly put it, “Gallium is critical for semiconductors, 5G, and defence — yet almost entirely controlled by a single jurisdiction”. The same holds for germanium. To secure our future industries, Australia must develop sovereign capabilities to produce these critical inputs at home.

Gega’s Low-Carbon Extraction from Waste

This is where Gega Elements comes in. The company has pioneered an innovative extraction technology that unlocks gallium and germanium from existing industrial waste, such as the slag from base metal smelters. Instead of needing new mines or imported concentrates, Gega can tap into the Ga and Ge present in Australia’s mining waste streams, materials that historically have been overlooked and literally thrown away.(Mining and smelting companies have not had incentive to recover these trace elements, so they often go uncaptured in the refining process.)

Gega’s refining process is built on proprietary materials science R&D and is designed to be both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. In contrast to traditional extraction methods (which can be energy-intensive and polluting), their approach operates with a much smaller carbon footprint. The team has essentially developed a next-generation separation method that can selectively pull out gallium and germanium from complex feedstocks, yielding high-purity outputs. This low-carbon, IP-protected process not only adds value to what was once waste, but does so with significantly reduced emissions compared to conventional refining.

Critically, Gega’s technology is scalable and flexible. It can be deployed at existing smelter sites or tailings facilities, creating a new domestic supply chain without the need for massive greenfield infrastructure. By partnering with mining and refining companies, Gega can help turn their by-products into a revenue stream while securing vital minerals for Australia. It’s a circular economy win-win:recover critical elements, reduce industrial waste, and shrink the need for long shipping routes (and their associated emissions).

Towards a Sovereign Supply Chain

The broader vision behind Gega Elements is to help Australia build sovereign capability in critical mineral processing. By establishing onshore refining for gallium and germanium,Australia can reduce its over-reliance on foreign processors and insulate itself from international supply shocks. Gega’s low-carbon extraction technology provides a pathway to develop a domestic supply of these minerals at scale, sourced from our own industrial waste and by-product streams.

This opportunity is nationally significant. It means the gallium in Australian bauxite or the germanium in our zinc concentrates could be refined right here at home, fueling local manufacturing of semiconductors, solar technologies, and defence hardware. Instead of sending raw materials overseas and buying back processed products,Australia can own the whole value chain from resource to refined material. The result is greater economic value retained onshore, new high-tech jobs, and enhanced national security.

We’re already seeing momentum toward this goal. Gega’s partnership with ASX-listed RareX is aimed at creating Australia’s first fully integrated gallium supply chain, combiningRareX’s resource base with Gega’s refining know-how. This collaboration will position Australia as one of only a few sources of gallium outside China, directly strengthening national critical mineral resilience.

Government and research institutions are also supportive; agencies like CSIRO and Geoscience Australia have identified producing gallium and germanium from existing operations as a strategic priority. There is alignment across public and private sectors to ensure Australia is not left exposed when it comes to these critical minerals.

If Gega succeeds, Australia would join the very short list of countries with the capability to refine gallium and germanium, positioning us as a secure supplier for allies and a leader in the critical minerals economy. The ripple effects, for our clean energy industry, tech sector, and defence supply chain, could be transformative.

Mo & Oliver

Gega Elements is led by a team with deep expertise in metallurgy and chemical engineering, and a clear passion for translating lab science into real-world impact.

But the most impressive part is that nearly four years ago,Mo Assefi told me, “Ben, one day soon, I’ll start my own startup and I’ll make sure to tell you about it.” He followed through on that vision, founding Gega Elements alongside Oliver Nighjoy (former CFO and experienced banker), both former colleagues at Novalith, another Investible portfolio company.

 We look forward to working closely with the Gega team as they scale up this technology. There is a journey ahead to establish full-scale refining operations, but the early signs including technical validation, industry partnership, and alignment with national strategy give us tremendous confidence in Mo and Oliver’s plans. Gega Elements has the potential to become a cornerstone of Australia’s critical minerals landscape, ensuring that our clean energy and national security industries have the homegrown ingredients they need to thrive in the decades to come.