US Antimony in DoD talks for smelter expansion, chairman says | Hotter Commodities

According to Gary Evans, the smelter, located in Thompson Falls, Montana, is currently running at about 160 tonnes per month, which is 50% of its nameplate capacity. Once US Antimony secures enough feedstock, it will be able to immediately double the smelter’s monthly production to 320 tonnes, with plans to eventually quadruple its capacity, Evans said.

“That’s part of our ask to the DoD: if they want us to crank things up, are they able to finance us to do so? Those are the type of discussions that are going on,” he said in a recent interview.

Those conversations began after China announced it would implement export controls on antimony and related products from September 15.

Evans said the company then started receiving calls from the DoD and has since hosted members of the department at its midstream and downstream processing facilities located in Thompson Falls and Philipsburg, Montana.

“At their request, we submitted a concept paper just over a month ago, detailing all the things that we could use money for in our operations, which we then discussed in person during our meetings last week,” Evans said.

Evans has since followed up with a number of meetings in Washington, DC this week.

“I’m hopeful the government will help me fund a significant expansion of our processing for us, which will also be partially funded by the company. It was very obvious from the discussions with the DoD that there’s a real problem, we all want to fix it, and we collectively have the resources to do so,” he added.

Antimony, used in munitions, flame retardants and lithium batteries, is a critical mineral in the United States as well as in other locations including the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, India and Japan.

Feedstock

Over the past several months, US Antimony has interacted with over 50 different parties spanning 16 different countries in its goal of securing new sources of antimony supply.

“All these discussions have been going on over the last three months. We will undoubtedly get some short-term supply, but we’re only going to have consistent supplies if it is our own mined product,” Evans said.

“You’ll probably see us make some announcements before the end of the year about getting some new supplies which is very beneficial – it drops right to the bottom line because we don’t have to add any capital equipment, as we already have it in place,” he added.

The company expects to sell its products in the domestic market rather than export them. In addition to governmental needs, the company already has non-governmental customers “lined up out of the door that want our finished products,” Evans said.

“I think it’s going to be a US product, which will resolve many issues,” he added.

At the same time, US Antimony is sourcing feedstock for its smelter located in Mexico from sources including Australia, Turkey, Thailand and Peru, Evans said.

Own mines

In addition to the planned US smelter expansion, US Antimony – which has been involved with all aspects of the antimony business for over 25 years – is actively working to develop its own sources of mined antimony.

“Antimony has historically been a metal that was deemed somewhat of a nuisance by many miners. That’s because antimony is many times associated with gold or other minerals, and nobody really knew what to do with it because it didn’t have a very high value,” Evans said, adding: “It was difficult to process, and there just wasn’t a whole lot of demand except during wars.”

That started changing about 10-15 years ago, when China began buying up antimony mines in various countries around the world, a move that Evans said in essence, secured control of the market.

“At around the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States was shutting down antimony mines because of its concern over arsenic and other contaminants with regards to pollution. And therefore, as we sit here today, there are currently no active antimony mines in the United States,” he told Fastmarkets.

“So, with a combination of low prices, EPA actions, and other federal regulations, antimony just hasn’t really been mined much, other than at operations controlled by China and some in Australia,” he added.

Evans noted that although antimony is used in ammunition, night vision cameras and binoculars, plus drones and laser-guided missiles, the US military was buying its antimony supply primarily through channels from China. US Antimony is not currently selling anything to the DoD but has been approved following a test-case of munition-grade material a couple of years ago, Evans said.

“There is a real problem; there’s a worldwide shortage of antimony and China is the 1,000-lb gorilla that controls the market. Every day that we’re talking to countries or companies about bringing antimony supply to the United States that we can process, we’re competing with China,” he added.

The company has made a concerted effort to explore for its own antimony sources. It has already leased properties in both Canada as well as in Alaska, the United States. Evans said two more properties are being negotiated that have a prior history of mining antimony.

“Our goal is to be mining antimony in 2025 that we can bring directly to our own facilities, and not have to count on other countries for supply,” he noted.

Evans said the company decided against reopening a former mine located near to the smelter in Montana. The mine was suspended in December 1983 because antimony could be purchased more economically from foreign sources.

“It is just not conducive to open. We looked at it hard and it just doesn’t make any sense – there aren’t enough reserves,” Evans said.

“Antimony is not a very easy ore to mine, because it’s not contiguous – it’s sporadic. Occasionally you find sweet spots, but it is typically associated with other critical minerals, which we have the ability to process at our facility in Philipsburg as well,” he added.

In addition to antimony, the company is involved in six other critical minerals, including cobalt in Canada and tungsten in Alaska.

“The beauty of our processing facility in Philipsburg is that it can handle all those critical minerals – so we can actually take them to the flotation facility and separate them from the trash rocks,” Evans said.

Prices and politics

Antimony prices play a key role in the company’s growth plans.

Evans said that the strengthening of the antimony price has enabled US Antimony to expand its margins because it typically pays a percentage of the Rotterdam price.

The price of antimony has more the trebled over the past year.

Fastmarkets’ twice-weekly price assessment for antimony, MMTA standard grade II, in-whs Rotterdam was $37,500-38,500 per tonne on November 15, up from $11,200-11,600 per tonne a year-ago.

At the same time, Evans said he did not anticipate any change as a result of the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

“I don’t think the administration change is going to matter at all. This is a problem that we have got to resolve, and I don’t think it matters if it was a Democrat or Republican in office,” he told Fastmarkets.

“We had very good support from the Democratic Party, and I don’t anticipate that changing with Trump now. The antimony situation has gone all the way up to the White House already; they are aware of it and are pushing the DoD to act on solving the problem,” he added.

In Hotter Commodities, special correspondent Andrea Hotter covers some of the biggest stories impacting the natural resources sector. Sign up today to receive Andrea’s content as it is published.