Australia Puts Money Behind Breaking China’s Grip on Antimony

Antimony rarely makes headlines, yet it sits inside a surprising range of products. It hardens the lead in bullets and batteries, helps plastics resist fire, and shows up in solar panel glass. In the U.S., flame retardants and other metal products account for about 49% of demand, while antimonial lead and ammunition take another 40%. (USGS)

The trouble is where the metal comes from. Of the roughly 110,000 metric tons mined worldwide in 2025, China produced about 40,000, with Russia and Tajikistan supplying most of the rest. China also holds the largest reserves. Its grip is even tighter on refined products: between 2021 and 2024, it supplied 66% of the antimony oxide the U.S. imported. Australia mined about 1,300 tons, all from one mine at Costerfield in Victoria. 

That concentration became a pressure point in 2024. China announced export restrictions in August and banned shipments to the U.S. in December. The average monthly price nearly doubled from $9.80 a pound in August to $18.10 in December, then climbed to $27.50 by June 2025.

Beijing suspended the U.S. ban in November 2025 as part of a trade truce, but that pause expires later this year on November 27th. Exporters still need Chinese licenses, and a separate ban on supplying U.S. military users was never lifted. Supply could tighten again with little warning.

Western governments are answering with money. In Idaho, Perpetua Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: PPTA) is building the Stibnite Gold Project, which holds the only identified antimony reserve in the U.S. It secured a $2.9 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States earlier this year in May. The company says the mine could eventually meet about 35% of U.S. antimony needs, with operations targeted for 2029. 

Australia has its own version of the problem. Victoria is the country’s only antimony producing state, but its concentrate is shipped overseas for processing, and the jobs leave with it. 

Premier Ben Carroll’s Victorian Labor Party has promised $13.9 million (AUD 20 million) toward an antimony processing facility in northern Victoria if it is re-elected. Labor calls it Australia’s first such plant, although Nyrstar’s Port Pirie smelter in South Australia has already shipped antimony metal with government backing. The proposed facility would be open to all Australian producers and could make up to 5,000 metric tons of antimony metal a year. The pledge depends on Labor winning the state election on November 28th. 

The state government also named Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd. (OTCQX: SXGCF, ASX: SX2.AX, TSX: SXGC.TO) and Ballarat-based Gekko Systems as preferred recipients under its Advancing Antimony Grants program. The two will share more than $521,000 (AUD 750,000) for processing and supply chain studies. That is the money actually committed today, and it is modest.

Southern Cross Gold is exploring Sunday Creek, a high-grade gold discovery about 60 kilometers north of Melbourne. By the company’s estimate, antimony makes up roughly 15% to 17% of the project’s recoverable value. Its share of the grant pays for pilot-scale testing to confirm recoveries, check metal quality, and study process residues for environmental permits. It also covers updated engineering for a plant that would take concentrate from Sunday Creek and other producers. The company applied for its first mining license in September. Chief executive Michael Hudson noted that sovereign infrastructure “requires political will to actually build.” 

The numbers explain why both pieces matter together. A plant sized for 5,000 metric tons a year would need almost four times Australia’s entire 2025 mine output to run at capacity, so its future rests on new sources like Sunday Creek reaching production. The grant tackles the technical questions, but not the election, the financing, or who buys the metal. China’s decision on its export pause will shape how urgent all of this feels in Western capitals.