

AsiaPacific Mining
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@AsianMining
AsiaPacific Journal of Mining's focus on Australia-Asia-Pacific advanced minerals supply chains for smart infrastructure & renewable energy (Ed: Geoffrey Gold)



THE PENTAGON JUST ADMITTED THE QUIET PART A "sole-source" contract. $245 million. One company. That's it. That's the entire North American antimony smelting industry. Why it matters: Antimony trisulfide ignites when firing pins strike primers. Without it, bullets don't fire. Artillery doesn't detonate. Over 300 types of U.S. munitions require this metalloid. China banned exports to America in December 2024. The National Defense Stockpile? 42 days. Not months. Days. Congress sold off $6 billion in strategic reserves since 1992 because "global markets will always provide." The price response: • January 2024: $11,300/ton • April 2025: $57,778/ton That's 400% in 18 months. The sharpest rally Fastmarkets has recorded since the 1980s. Beijing didn't need missiles. It needed patience and paperwork. November 2025 "suspension"? Commercial only. Military end-use: still banned. The window closes November 2026. Right before midterms. Here's what nobody's connecting: Solar panels need antimony for glass clarity. Defense needs it for ammunition. Both compete for the same constrained non-Chinese supply. One policy framework must yield. The winners already know: UAMY $245M DLA contract. Perpetua $80M+ DoD grants. Nova $43M defense funding. The losers: Everyone without locked-in supply watching input costs triple. This isn't a commodity cycle. This is proof-of-concept for mineral warfare. The question isn't whether Beijing uses this playbook again. The question is: which metal is next? Read the full story - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…



















