This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Military Metals. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Antimony is having a moment in the market. The ascent in price and prominence of the lustrous grey metalloid (Sb) appears to know no limits, making antimony a staple in global headlines as mining companies, governments, and investors alike seek to capitalise on a metal that’s long flown under the radar.
Long before antimony became ubiquitous Canadian company Military Metals (CSE:MILI) undertook market reconnaissance in a bid to capitalise and commercialise this important strategic metal.
Armed with an experienced team, backed by a strong investor base, and prepared to lead on the frontlines, Military Metals’ mission is to explore and discover the metals that make a difference in defence technology. By focusing on critical resources such as antimony, it seeks to provide the essential materials that strengthen military equipment and infrastructure.
As Australia-based Director Mark Saxon explains to Mining.com.au, the company is committed to uncovering and harnessing these valuable resources to fortify the backbone of military might.
“We’re focused on antimony first – so antimony plus gold, rather than gold plus antimony,” Saxon says.
Why target antimony?
Antimony is a silvery metalloid isolated and processed from the mineral stibnite for commercial use in a variety of downstream products and industries. Its key properties are the ability to harden and strengthen certain metals.
During World War II, antimony was instrumental to US production of tungsten steel and the hardening of lead bullets used in combat. At the time up to 90% of antimony demand was fulfilled through domestic production.
As Saxon explains to Mining.com.au, today antimony is a critical component across military, manufacturing, and renewable energy applications, particularly solar photovoltaic glass to improve the performance of solar cells. The metal enhances perovskite solar cells by improving light absorption and charge transport, resulting in higher energy conversion rates. This makes solar panels more efficient at capturing sunlight and converting it into usable energy.
There are two primary forms of antimony for sale – metallic antimony, which is used primarily as a hardening agent in manufacturing solder, ammunition, castings, and pewter; and antimony trioxide, which is used in flame retardants and increasingly as a clarifying agent in solar glass which is key to increase solar panel efficiency.
Saxon says Military Metals is well positioned for growth by seeking to capitalise on the metal’s increasing use and applications.
While the company remains focused on its 100% owned flagship Trojarová antimony-gold project in Slovakia, a review is underway on the Medvedi-Potok tin property, which similar to Trojarová, is host to a Soviet era historical tin resource. The Trojárová project sits near Bratislava in Western Slovakia and is on trend and the likely continuation of the historical Pezinok Antimony-Gold Mine.
Like antimony, tin is an important critical metal with numerous and widespread uses in metal coatings (tin cans), solder, electronics, glass and automobile manufacturing, optical touch screens and more. Most production is very tightly controlled by a few East Asian countries, principally China which produces about 48% of supply, Myanmar, and Indonesia.
The company is invested in assets that can be regarded as “critical metals” – which may be small compared to other more established markets but “utterly an essential part of many components in the energy, communication, and military industries”.
“The markets are highly fluid. Demand growth for antimony is high, but pricing is volatile as there is a lot of uncertainty as to how the sector will grow from its current small base,” Saxon tells this news service.
In terms of its longer term growth strategy, Saxon cautions now is not the time for major predictions – volatility is off the scale. However, down the line the company is in a “great position” to potentially pursue further inorganic growth opportunities – whether via acquisitions, JVs, strategic partnerships, or other measures.
Military Metals is often approached in this regard and one of main reasons, the director notes, is that it’s one of the few companies that focuses on antimony first – not gold plus antimony.
As such, Military Metals could seek “small step diversification” and opportunistically assess prospective targets that fit with the strategic vision currently being developed in regions of low sovereign risk.
“So, brownfields projects where antimony has more value than the other metals are key. I don’t think the company will grab a gold project with a little bit of antimony. It would be an antimony project with a little bit of gold. I think that that would make sense. And the jurisdictions will be safe and stable jurisdictions,” Saxon continues.
However, Saxon reiterates Military Metals is antimony first – other commodities are secondary.
“The company has some assets in tin-tungsten, which are also in Slovakia and that’s a natural fit. Again, critical metals in the same country, you build up a team and you’ve got a network there. Assets in other places? We’d look at it. However, most investment at the moment is going into our assets in Slovakia,” he continues.
“We’re mindful that we’re working across different jurisdictions. We’ve got to move all of those things ahead. We already looked at opportunities, particularly in Nova Scotia with West Gore Antimony Project acquisition. We’ve increased the landholding in that region just recently.”
Chain of command: Supply volatility
Saxon says critical metals including antimony have complex supply chains – they’re used in small amounts in modest value but have high impact and importance because of their function.
“If they could be substituted they would have been. We are going to see lots of cross border complexity – mining versus processing versus downstream are all done in different places, but typically with a Chinese bias,” the director adds.
“The US voice globally has been weakened in the last few months as they have removed themselves from alliances. That creates a period of uncertainty but a lot of opportunity. Supply chains are becoming less secure – shorter supply chains are key. Military Metals’ diversity across jurisdictions is a great opportunity there.”
The majority of antimony smelters are located in China although smelting capacity – mainly to produce ingots – is located in a range of countries that cater for Western customers including Vietnam, Tajikistan, Thailand, Belgium, and Mexico.
China’s ban on antimony exports to the US increases pressure to find alternative processing destinations.
The Oman Antimony Roaster facility is struggling to find enough feed at an economic level so is not currently operating. The United States Antimony Corporation currently has the only antimony processing facility in North America, which is located in Montana and has capacity to produce 10ktpa of products.
This incentivises Military Metals to continue advancing its portfolio of assets in Slovakia.
Ascent of antimony
With its expanding applications antimony is having a moment. At the end of 2023, a tonne of the brittle, grey metal was fetching around US$17,240 (ingot prices). By the end of May 2024 that figure jumped to about US$26,575 and climbed even further to roughly US$35,000 in November.
Antimony’s price recently skyrocketed to US$60,000 amid the tariffs and trade war that has erupted between the US and China.
Few commodities can lay claim to such a growth trajectory, which has made antimony at least a temporary staple for companies, governments, and investors to identify and exploit this new reality.
China’s export restrictions on antimony products are both economically driven and geopolitically driven as it exerts influence in the global allocation of strategic metals. According to Blue Ocean Equities, the relatively inelastic supply, depleted stockpiles, and strong demand growth point to a persistent high price environment over the next three to four years.
But what else is behind this sharp price rise? And how do things look going forward?
It is, predictably, a matter of supply and demand.
Under the radar
“For the longest time antimony has flown under the radar,” Saxon tells Mining.com.au.
“If you look back, the reason most people haven’t heard about it is because most antimony came as a byproduct, predominantly from mining gold. Antimony is not uncommon but more attention has been paid to it especially for its defence applications and due to the energy transition.”
Antimony is typically a byproduct within intrusive precious metal systems and some disseminated gold deposits.
“Usually antimony can be found with gold and quite often you’ll get high grades of gold and high grades of antimony together. So they’re not mega scale projects, they’re smaller scale and not really capital intensive,” Saxon adds.
From an exploration/mining point of view, he says there are lots of early explorers, however there are only a few advanced projects – and that’s where Military Metals has a clear voice and vision.
The Canadian company was an early mover in antimony and its flagship Trojarová antimony-gold asset in Slovakia is a brownfields project with a “unique offering” where the antimony value is greater than the gold value.
In early April, a technical team was onsite at the Trojarová antimony-gold deposit to complete a laser imaging, detection and ranging (LIDAR) survey of the underground workings. Totalling 1.7km in length from the portal at the southeast end and in the hanging wall of the mineralised zone, the drift cuts southwest then runs northwest in the footwall of the northwest-striking, northeast-dipping zone.
“Antimony is the target not the byproduct,” Saxon continues.
Historically, antimony played a vital role in military applications such as night vision goggles, explosive formulations, flares, nuclear weapons production, and infrared sensors. Saxon says its expanded uses – especially in advanced battery technology – underscores its importance as a critical mineral.
“Antimony is the target not the byproduct”
“Military applications such as bullets, projectiles can use antimony alloys and that hardens the metal and controls how those projectiles react. That’s important. And obviously reducing the flammability of military equipment is critical. So, it’s used as a flame retardant in military applications, as well as others,” Saxon explains to Mining.com.au.
Antimony oxide by itself is not a fire retardant and the halogens by themselves, mainly bromine and chlorine, are actually weak fire retardants. However, when combined they become synergistic, making them the most effective and widely used flame retardant system for plastics.
In addition to antimony’s application in flame retardants and cladding, which boomed after the UK’s Grenfell Tower fire incident in 2017, military applications account for a significant amount of its usage. As a key hardening alloy in lead and tin, Saxon notes that it’s vital to the manufacturing of arms and ammunition, as well as other advanced technologies.
A Blue Ocean Equities research note suggests protracted wars have had a material impact on stockpiled munitions, shells, and missiles, placing further demand to increase antimony production to sustain ongoing warfare and replace strategic stockpiles.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, munition stockpiles have been materially depleted across Russia, Ukraine, Europe, and the US. Blue Ocean Equities says US military and its NATO allies have been struggling to replace munition with the US currently producing 36,000 of 155mm shells a month – an increase from historical levels of below 20,000 per month. The US is targeting manufacturing 100,000 shells a month by the end of 2025 to contribute to NATO’s goal of producing 2 million of 155mm shells per year.
“The build up of military spending, that’s good for antimony,” Saxon adds.
Breach: Global antimony battleground
Military Metals’ director says overall the antimony market is fairly modest in scale and there are only a handful of players globally. The downstream value-add is a massive opportunity although the processing and the value of the metal itself is not by comparison.
At a glance, there’s about US$5 billion worth antimony material going into a trillion dollars worth of products and applications.
So where is antimony produced?
Historically, production has occurred in countries with large antimony deposits including China, Russia, Bolivia, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkey, and the United States. Currently, China is the top producer of the metal, but notably other producers such as Russia and Tajikistan significantly ramped up production since 2015.
With no less than two major wars currently raging, plus dozens of other conflicts — from insurgencies in Africa to the drug wars in Mexico — Saxon says it’s little wonder the world’s antimony market is in a net deficit.
Such steep growth is expected to tighten the available supply of antimony over the coming years. A forecast earlier this year by China Merchants Securities suggests demand from the photovoltaic sector will increase from roughly 16,000 tonnes in 2021 to 68,000 tonnes in 2026, with the industry’s share of total consumption rising from 11% to 39%.
Though the above factors are well-established, antimony prices were dealt an additional boost with China’s decision to restrict exports of the metal from mid-September 2024.
Given China’s status as the world’s dominant supplier of antimony, it was big news, and came in the guise of national security. A brief explanation at the time said the Chinese Government opposes any country using items from China “to engage in activities that undermine China’s national sovereignty, security, and development interests”.
The ban covers six antimony-related products, including antimony ore, antimony metals, antimony oxide, and gold-antimony smelting and separation technologies. Anyone seeking to export such products will need to apply for a licence through China’s Commerce Ministry.
China imposed similar restrictions on exports of gallium and germanium, two metals used in computer chips and solar cells, to “safeguard national security”.
Notably, there is some well-founded speculation that China simply doesn’t have the antimony reserves it used to. Yet its curbing of exports of some antimony products is pushing the price up significantly.
“So it’s gone from US$10,000 a tonne to US$60,000 a tonne and suddenly there is a real market because you can have standalone antimony mines, you can have smelters outside of China. It has allowed the market to build up, but the Western world isn’t there yet. It’s still got a lot of catching up,” Saxon notes.
There are some established antimony miners in the Western world.
One player in the market is Mandalay Resources (TSX:MND), which has the Costerfield operation in Victoria, Australia, within the Costerfield mining district 10km northeast of the town of Heathcote. Purchased in 2009, Mandalay restarted capital development and mining. By 2013, through improvements and investment in mining and processing methods, the processing plant’s capacity was expanded from 5,000 to 13,000 tonnes per month.
Saxon notes, however, that Mandalay’s Costerfield mine is predominantly a gold operation with the majority of its value derived from the precious metal. In a production outlook for 2025, Mandalay expects to produce up to 39,000 ounces of gold and 1,150 tonnes of antimony from Costerfield this year.
Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) owns the Hillgrove gold-antimony mine and plant in New South Wales, Australia. The company is nearing completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which is being modelled at conservative commodity prices of US$2,400 an ounce for gold and US$25,000 per tonne for antimony. Both figures are well below the current prices of over US$3,100 for gold and US$60,000 for antimony.
Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) is planning to be in production late 2025 via restarting the historic and high-grade Scrafford Gold Antimony Mine in Alaska. Scrafford provided a strategic source of antimony to the US during WWI and WWII.
Meanwhile, Lode Resources (ASX:LDR) could undertake pilot production at its Montezuma Project in late 2025 or early 2026 due to the high-grade mineralisation and plant footprint in Tasmania. Lode also holds the historically high-grade Magwood antimony mine in New South Wales.
Resource reconnaissance
Total antimony demand is estimated to be circa 160 kilotonnes per annum. Short term drivers in the demand include strong growth of solar PV as key foundation of a policy driven energy transition with strong focus on renewables, regulation that requires flame retardant properties in building materials, and extended warfare across Ukraine and the Middle East.
Blue Ocean Equities notes that structural deficits of antimony are being driven by a perfect storm, which are supporting strong prices.
“Historically, material antimony price spikes have been observed during periods of prolonged wars (WWI, WWII, and Korean War), during periods of strong economic expansion (early 2000s driven by China’s economic growth and consolidation of small antimony mines within Hunan) as well as periods of structural demand change (fire retardant regulation, lead-antimony batteries) or supply shocks (covid-19) with price reductions correlated with periods of stronger supply and material stockpiles (2011-15 and 2019 under Metal Exchange collapse),” Blue Ocean Equities reports.
As a first mover, Military Metals has undertaken reconnaissance of the global antimony market and is positioning itself as an advocate for the metal. Saxon suggests that’s one of the reasons he joined the company. Another is that Military Metals has a strong investor group behind it.
“The company was previously in lithium, had a few trades where they bought projects, built them up and sold them on and did really well. So, they’ve got a strong voice for that reason,” Saxon adds.
Saxon came into Military Metals’ orbit when he was running a company in Sweden that made a lithium discovery, which was bought by one of Military’s former companies. Staying in touch with CEO Scott Eldridge, Saxon says it didn’t take long to be sold on Military Metals’ mission to explore and discover the metals that make a difference in defence technology.
“It is an ideal time to be developing antimony projects”
Citing the US administration’s decision to exclude a key group of minerals including antimony, cobalt, nickel, indium, gallium, bismuth, and fluorspar from the sweeping reciprocal tariffs announced by President Donald Trump, Eldridge notes this highlights the critical nature of antimony given its importance to multiple applications including renewable energy and the defence sector.
“It is an ideal time to be developing antimony projects,” Eldridge adds.
While the company is committed to uncovering and harnessing these valuable resources to fortify the backbone of military might Saxon cautions it’s a long road ahead.
“None of us can guess how this all turns out, particularly after what’s been happening with global markets. But it’s the right time for looking at new supply chains and new partnerships and for disconnection from China, which is reinforcing the need for a Western supply chain.”
“The build up of military spending, that’s good for antimony. Developing new supply chains and new relationships, amid the geopolitical climate, that’s important. The price is as high as it’s ever been. Governments recognise that critical metals are important and they need to get involved in fixing the problems. Military Metals is a mining company committed to helping find solutions to these problems too.”
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au & Military Metals
