Nearly a decade after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has yet to commence its gallium extraction project.

In 2016, NALCO had partnered with BARC to develop technology for extracting gallium, a strategic and valuable rare metal, from Bayer liquor—a by-product of the alumina refining process that contains trace amounts of gallium. At the time, NALCO described the project as its first research and development collaboration with BARC, aimed at creating indigenous technology for gallium recovery in the national interest. Then-Chairman Tapan Kumar Chand had highlighted the potential of Bayer liquor, also known as sodium aluminate liquor, as a source of gallium through specialised extraction methods. Despite the initial plans, progress has been slow.

A recent report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services noted that NALCO informed analysts that a pilot plant is now being established to evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of the process. This indicates that the initiative remains in preliminary stages even after ten years, underlining the challenges in operationalising rare metal recovery from industrial by-products.