Indium

Supplying the resources needed for the future. 

Whilst American West Metals’ other critical minerals, copper and zinc, are commonly recognised as key building blocks to many modern technologies, the lesser known indium is considered a critical and strategic mineral due to its ongoing use in the aerospace, defence, energy, and telecommunications industries.

Indium is used in the production of many high-tech devices such as touchscreens, flatscreen TVs, solar panels and microchips, as well as infrared lasers for transmitting data down optical fibres. Indium also plays a crucial role in the aerospace and defence, making it a strategic and critical mineral.

Indium is a soft, silvery Rare Earth Element (REE) and due to its high electrical conductivity, transparent appearance and its ability to bond to glass, the uses for indium are many and varied. Most commonly indium is used to manufacture indium tin oxide, a key feedstock of touch screens, flatscreen TVs and importantly solar panels.

But there’s a problem: we have no guaranteed long-term supply of this scarce substance.

American West’s West Desert deposit is USA’s only established domestic indium resource

West Desert has the potential to provide a long-term supply of the metal to a market that has been starved of indium. Geopolitical alignment of supply chains in the resources sector has emerged as an important global issue for governments. West Desert is uniquely placed to provide a strategically important supply of critical and strategic metals in the US. 

American West’ wholly-owned West Desert deposit contains a historical resource base of more than 59 million tonnes, with a 16.5 million-tonne high-grade core at 6.3 per cent zinc, 0.3 per cent copper and 33 g/t indium.

 


Sources:

Royal Society of Chemistry. (2022). Indium. Retrieved from: https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/49/indium 

Lasley, S. (28 September 2021). The Invisible technology Demand for indium. Metaltech News. Retrieved from: https://www.metaltechnews.com/story/2021/09/09/critical-minerals-alliances/the-invisible-technology-demand-for-indium/697.html 

U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, (January 2022). Indium. Retrieved from: https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2022/mcs2022-indium.pdf 

Birney, M. (9 November 2022). US grant tops $300k into study of American West Copper Play. The West Australian.  Retrieved from: https://thewest.com.au/business/public-companies/us-grant-tips-300k-into-study-of-american-west-copper-play-c-8805309