KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – An old zinc factory in Middle Tennessee may look like any other industrial plant, but it’s actually at the center of a global trade and tariff war. Soon, experts think this could mean more jobs for Tennessee.

“We can mine it and refine it, we have it all right here in Tennessee,” Kelli Pendleton told WVLT News on a visit to Clarksville.

Nyrstar, a global mining company, said that up to 80% of our domestic supply of germanium and gallium could come from Tennessee.

“Gallium and germanium which would give us that independence from external countries,” William Whitlock said. Whitlock is the general manager of Nyrstar’s Clarksville smelter.

Some call ‘critical minerals.’ Whichever you like, germanium and gallium are in high demand.

They go into weaponry, night vision goggles, radar, infrastructure, you name the space-age technology, there’s a good chance one of those elements is needed. Other elements, like the group called the lanthanides, are referred to as ‘rare earth elements.’ These are very slightly different but are commonly used synonymously.

“The concentrate comes up on that conveyer, it goes into the roaster, which is that big silver vessel,” Whitlock said.

He showed us the path zinc takes – before they salvage the rare earths from the zinc waste products afterwards. Our news crew was the first TV station allowed inside.

“We’ve got a big head start,” spokeswoman Pendleton said. Pendleton added that the feedstock for ‘new’ rare earth element production actually comes from a pond that’s been holding zinc waste for more than 40 years.

The pond looks clear but holds up to 80% of the material that the smelter will need to process their demand. Eventually that could mean 50,000 tons of material is processed in Tennessee, with the other 20% coming out of Nyrstar’s other Tennessee mines. Why now? A global trade war between the United States and China is to blame.

“That’s because China is the dominant global producer of critical minerals,” Dr. James Lake from the University of Tennessee said.

Lake is an Australian trade expert who came to Knoxville to study the impact of tariffs.

“If we’re thinking about tariffs on China, they haven’t accepted a lower price at all,” Lake said. “They’ve fully passed on that tariff to the U.S. importer.”

China’s vice grip on these space-age materials means they can flood the world market or starve it.

“This includes some of the minerals that we have access to in Tennessee. Germanium and gallium,” Lake said.

The only other stable supply is right here in Tennessee, multiple experts report. The tug of war over rare earth metals could mean hundreds of jobs in the Volunteer State over the next decade.

“Several mine shafts in the East Tennessee area, near Knoxville, as well as near Gordonsville in Middle Tennessee,” Whitlock said.

And that requires a lot of money. It brings a lot of risks as well.

All sides said the increased volatility in the market, along with the ongoing trade war, makes immediate concrete action harder. Nyrstar and leaders at all levels of the Tennessee and federal government have lobbied hard for safeguards on rare Earth prices.

Whitlock cited recent executive orders that may make economic development in Tennessee happen faster. All signs point to a rich vein to tap into, under our feet, and on the commodity markets.

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