Antimony Deposit Types & Origins
The global consumption of antimony has increased significantly over the past 20 years, and the trend will continue. Worldwide demand for antimony trioxide has risen 7.5% annually from 2004 to an estimated 180,000t in 2010. In June 2010 the European Commission identified antimony as one of the 14 minerals critical to European industry, which are facing supply challenges. China has historically been the largest producer of antimony in the world. China accounted for about 90% of global antimony output in 2009.
Hunan Nonferrous Metals (a subsidiary of China Minmetals Corp.) is the largest producer of antimony in the world. It controls 50% of Chinese production, and is now the world’s leading importer of antimony ores and concentrates. Its domestic antimony demand has also become the world’s largest.
Declining Supply
The global supply is declining because:
- China produced in 2009, 91% of the world’s antimony production. There is no antimony mining in the EU or the US.
- Chinese government has declared antimony a strategic metal – along with tungsten and rare earths
- Numerous mine closures following environmental crackdowns in Hunan Province
- Exhausted and flooded mines in Nandan Province
- Drought and power restrictions in Guangxi Province
- Forced consolidation of Chinese antimony miners and smelters with 1,000 operations reduced to 10
- It is widely believed that Chinese antimony resources are nearly entirely depleted, after decades of production in overdrive, without typical environmental restrictions.
Growing Demand
Antimony’s price has grown to over $13,000 / tonne (January 2011) with demand being fuelled because: China is now the world’s largest user and is experiencing continuing domestic growth. In 2011, China updated their list of imports that can receive interest subsidies for 2011. In a joint statement jointly released by the three government ministries, firms are encouraged to import molybdenum and antimony ores and natural uranium. This is despite China being by far and away the largest producer of antimony.
Antimony placed on EU critical list, the EU has identified 14 critical raw materials for the future of EU manufacturing.
- Every industrial country in the world legally requires fire-proofing for children’s clothing and toys and antimony trioxide for flame retardants accounts for 70% of antimony consumption
- China is the largest manufacturer of children’s clothing in the world
- China has a rapidly expanding automotive battery industry
- Asian demand for bottle-grade PEt is forecast to grow at over 10% per year
- New demand for phase-change memory devices in mobile phones and computers
There is currently no primary US production. In 2004, smelters in New Jersey and Texas closed, leaving only a Montana facility that recycles lead-acid batteries as the last domestic supply. China continues to experience production constraints. The net result is a continuation of a world supply deficit, helping to fuel the price rise to over $13,000 / tonne (January 2011).