A GLOBAL shortage of antimony – used in munitions – could worsen as the US and Europe replenish stockpiles of bullets and bombs used in Ukraine, said Bloomberg News.
The newswire cited the comments of Larvotto Resources which is due to open a new mine producing antimony in Australia next year.
Antimony-lead alloys are used in bullet cores, explosives and shrapnel weapons, said Bloomberg News. Ukraine’s Western military backers have drawn on ageing inventory that will now need replaced, Larvotto’s MD Ron Heeks said in an interview.
“The antimony and lead from these munitions would normally be recycled into new weapons, but those have gone to the front line in Ukraine,” Heeks said.
The new mine will offer a rare new stream of output from a Western nation in an antimony industry dominated by China and Russia.
Prices of the metal are nearly four times higher than a year ago, after Beijing tightened exports of critical materials, triggering a scramble for supplies across high-tech and defense industries, said Bloomberg News.
Military applications remain a small segment of antimony’s demand, which is dominated by flame retardants, lead-acid batteries and the chemicals industry. Excluding the batteries, the world needs about 120,000 tons a year and it’s only producing about 80,000 tons, Heeks said.
China in December slapped a ban on US-bound exports of antimony, gallium and germanium, flexing its strong grip on strategic materials. While US President Donald Trump is pursuing an end to the Ukraine war, his America-first foreign policy is spurring European nations to ramp up defense spending — including on munitions.
China, Russia and Tajikistan produce about 87% of the world’s mined antimony supply, according to Mandalay Resources Corp., which operates a mine in Australia that counts for just 2%, and where output is declining.
