Here at Mining.com.au, one of the most talked-about minerals is gold.
Even those with limited mining knowledge could tell you of its uses: from jewellery, to investment portfolios, and even in electronics.
But this news service isn’t the only one watching gold — the commodity is closely followed worldwide.
As reported by Mining.com.au, the trading price of the metal grew nearly 1% to approach US$4,100 ($5,830) an ounce yesterday (4 August) as cooling US-Iran tensions eased inflation fears and the pressure for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
One of the best things about the metal for supply chains is the abundance found globally.
Gold can be sourced across all seven continents, and according to the World Gold Council, if all of the existing gold in the world was pulled into a five micron thick wire, it could wrap around the world 11.2 million times.
Throughout history, humankind has mined around 219,890 tonnes of gold, with two-thirds of that total being mined since 1950.
While this figure represents an abundance of gold, the outlook looks different for the surging critical mineral: Antimony.
The US Geological Survey reports around 110,000 tonnes of antimony is produced each year — making two years worth of production equate to the entire known history of gold mining.
China, Russia, and Tajikistan together account for more than 90% of global antimony mine production, with China alone responsible for approximately 48%, as reported.
An invisible string
There is an invisible string that ties these two very different minerals together.
More and more explorers are emerging as both gold and antimony-focused due to the commonality of gold and antimony mineralisation occurring together in the same ore deposit.
The natural mineral ore of antimony is stibnite. Stibnite is widely considered an accessory to gold-bearing quartz veins, Resources Victoria reports.
The sequence of gold and antimony precipitation can vary depending on the temperature of the system.
Higher temperature systems such as hydrothermal deposits often observe gold precipitates prior to antimony, whereas there is no consistent depositional sequence observed in lower-temperature systems, such as Carlin-type deposits.
Carlin-type deposits are named after the gold-central Carlin Trend — a geological feature that runs along northeastern Nevada in the US, extending over 60km of predominantly sedimentary-rock-hosted gold deposits.
The trend is described as the largest and most productive gold mining district in North America, with a cumulative production of 98.4 million ounces of gold by the end of 2022, according to The Nevada Mineral Industry 2022.
North of Nevada’s Carlin Trend, Albright Metals (ASX:ABR) is focused on gold-antimony discoveries in New Brunswick, Canada.
The company’s Golden Pike Gold and Antimony Project sits 90km north of the port city of Saint John, spanning 3,292 hectares and comprising 146 contiguous mineral claims.
In late June, Albright shared assay results from the project, sourced from a diamond core sampling program.
Highlight gold intercepts collected from the Albright Brook prospect include 37.05m @ 1.12 grams per tonne gold (Au) from 60.95m, including 2.35m @ 4.76g/t Au from 77.10m; 13.2m @ 1.14g/t Au from 62.3m, including 1.55m @ 2.19g/t Au from 63.7m and 1.3m @ 3.7g/t Au from 69.6m; and 1.88m @ 2.28g/t Au from 100.62m, including 1.38m @ 3.01g/t Au from 101.12m.
The company also returned intersected antimony internal to a larger gold interval, with downhole intercept of 2.46m at 0.50% antimony (Sb) and 1.72g/t Au from 62.3m, including 0.36m at 3.23% Sb and 2.81g/t Au from 64.4m.
Albright’s exploration program is designed to unlock both gold and antimony potential, aligning with global demand for precious and critical minerals while benefiting from New Brunswick’s increasingly pro-mining stance.
Albright Metals is a mineral explorer focused on antimony, copper, gold, lithium, and manganese across Australia and Canada.
Tying gold to antimony in the southern hemisphere
In Australia, Victoria currently produces the most gold-antimony, as home to the Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK) Costerfield mine near Heathcote in central Victoria.
In 2024, the Costerfield mine produced 43,346 ounces of gold and 1,282 tonnes of antimony, being the only operating producer of antimony in Australia.
Beyond production, Victoria is known to host 253 gold-antimony occurrences, which was first discovered in 1851, according to Resources Victoria.
Kalamazoo Resources (ASX:KZR) holds one of the largest tenement holdings in the Central Victorian Goldfields, covering a total area of 2,006km2.
The company’s holdings include the Mt Piper Gold Project, the South Muckleford Gold Project, and the Castlemaine Gold Project, spanning the Bendigo Zone, which has historically produced over 60 million ounces of gold, and the adjacent Melbourne Zone.
Kalamazoo describes the Melbourne Zone as demonstrating ‘high-grade’ gold-antimony potential.
At the Mt Piper Project, the company unveiled ‘extensive’ gold-antimony anomalism from a surface geochemistry campaign in February 2026.
Rock chip sampling returned results up to 3.2 grams per tonne Au and 1,427 parts per million Sb at the Kurkuruk prospect over 670m, as reported.
Mt Piper sits adjacent to Agnico Eagle Mines’ (NYSE:AEM) exploration tenure, 30km from the 9-million-ounce Fosterville gold mine, with Costerfield to the north and the Sunday Creek gold-antimony discovery to the south.
The Mt Piper Gold Project is considered highly prospective for Fosterville-style epizonal gold and antimony deposits.
Kalamazoo Resources is an Australian gold and antimony explorer and developer focused on advancing its portfolio of assets located in Western Australia and Victoria.
The Murica revival
It’s no secret that the US is undergoing a major domestic antimony revival after no marketable antimony was mined in the country in 2023, according to the US Geological Survey.
Driven by federal critical minerals initiatives and China’s export bans, companies like Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) are wasting no time.
In June 2026, the company launched Frontier Antimony Refinery — a US-focused platform for antimony refining, metal production, marketing, and downstream development.
Felix Gold will provide antimony feedstock from its Treasure Creek Project in Alaska to the new company.
Treasure Creek is prospective for gold and antimony exploration, with military-grade antimony available for defence purposes and continuous gold mineralisation.
Felix Gold is advancing two complementary opportunities, antimony and gold, in Alaska’s Fairbanks Mining District.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock, Albright Metals & Felix Gold
