The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - August 23, 2023
Antimony is a strategic metal used in flame retardant fabrics, communication equipment, night vision goggles, ammunition, laser sighting, and a wide array of other military equipment.
As part of its commitment to establishing domestic supplies of the minerals and metals critical to America's economy and security, the U.S. Department of Defense is investing another $15.5 million to help establish an antinomy supply chain that begins at Perpetua Resources Corp.'s Stibnite Gold project in Idaho.
Used in a wide range of military gear, from fire-resistant combat equipment and night vision goggles to ammunition and laser sighting, antimony is high on the Pentagon's list of strategic materials.
This metalloid, which is an element with properties that fall between metals and non-metals, is also used in car batteries, high-quality glass for binocular lenses and similar optical equipment, glass screens of smartphones and other electronic devices.
Adding to its criticality, antimony is also a key ingredient in liquid-metal batteries that can store electricity at the grid scale, a key enabler to the transition to intermittent renewable energy sources.
Despite its strategic value to the Pentagon and critical applications in the private sector, no marketable antimony is being mined in the U.S. Instead, America depends on oft adversarial countries for more than 83% of its needs, with the rest coming from recycling.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China produced roughly 55% of global supply during 2022, Russia accounted for about 18%, and Tajikistan produced another 15% – a combined 88% of the world's mined antimony.
The Pentagon sees Perpetua's Stibnite project in Idaho, which is home to a historic mine credited with saving "the lives of a million American soldiers" due to the strategic metals it produced during World War II, as the best place to establish a secure domestic supply of this critical metalloid.
This is why DOD has awarded the company a total of more than $40 million in grants to help establish a modern antimony mine and processing plant to produce antimony trisulfide, which is used in explosives, fireworks, and glass.
"We are excited to expand our partnership with the Department of Defense and are proud to help demonstrate a fully domestic supply chain solution for the ammunition our troops need to keep our nation and our allies safe," said Perpetua Resources President and CEO Laurel Sayer.
As a vanguard of its mission to establish a domestic antimony supply chain that begins at Stibnite, Pentagon awarded two $100,000 grants to see if military-grade antimony trisulfide could be produced from the project.
Following this initial study, DOD awarded Perpetua another $24.8 million of Defense Production Act Title III funding to complete environmental and engineering studies necessary to finalize the federal and state permitting needed to reestablish a mine at Stibnite.
Perpetua began permitting the Stibnite mine more than six years ago and hopes to finalize the process early next year.
Once the permits are granted and the mine developed, Stibnite is expected to supply roughly 35% of America's current antimony needs while also producing roughly 4.24 million ounces of gold over 15 years of mining.
As part of this modern mining effort, Perpetua will be restoring areas impacted by historical operations that were attributed to shortening World War II by one full year but were not carried out under the standards and practices of modern mining.
"Our vision remains unchanged, which is to redevelop a world class gold deposit, provide the country with the critical mineral antimony, and restore an abandoned brownfield site," said Sayers.
Toward its mission of transforming critical antimony produced at Stibnite into military-grade antimony trisulfide needed for munitions, the DOD Ordnance Technology Consortium has awarded Perpetua an additional $15.5 million.
This investment will build upon the vanguard investigations carried out by the two $100,000 grants awarded in 2022 toward the Pentagon's objective of demonstrating a fully domestic antimony trisulfide supply chain using ore from the Stibnite Gold project.
To meet this objective, Perpetua plans to conduct a pilot plant study to produce military-grade antimony trisulfide from additional core samples obtained from Stibnite, design a full-scale process circuit, and deliver a modular pilot plant for DOD to use in further investigations.
"Perpetua is ready to be part of the solution and support our country's defense supply chains from ground to round," said Sayer.
This grant is being awarded to Perpetua on a cost-plus basis, meaning the company will be compensated in addition to the cost of the work.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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