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Using just 20% of its reserves to support over 50% of the global supply, after gallium and germanium, China has decided to implement export controls on antimony, a metal with both strategic and new energy attributes.

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Export Control on Antimony and Other Items

The Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued an announcement on the 15th, deciding to impose export controls on certain items related to antimony and superhard materials.

The announcement specifies that the export of items listed in the announcement that have a significant impact on national security shall be approved by the State Council of China upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Commerce in conjunction with relevant departments. Those that pass the review and are permitted will be issued dual-use item and technology export licenses by the Ministry of Commerce.

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The new regulation will be implemented starting September 15th of this year.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce of China stated that the implementation of export controls on antimony and related superhard materials is a common international practice. China has adopted this international practice and, based on its own needs, has imposed export controls on the relevant items to better safeguard national security and fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation. The policy is not targeted at any specific country or region. Exports that comply with the relevant regulations will be permitted.

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Antimony, which is present in the Earth's crust at a concentration of 0.0001%,Antimony is present in the Earth's crust at only 0.0001%, and due to its low reserves, it is considered one of China's four major strategic resources alongside tungsten, tin, and rare earths.

It is widely acknowledged that rare earths are a crucial strategic resource, playing a significant role in the high-tech development of a nation. China's reserves of rare earths once accounted for 80% of the world's total, but after continuous mining and exportation, our country's reserves have plummeted to less than 50% of the global amount. The value of rare earths is well recognized, but there is another mineral resource in China that is even more precious than rare earths, which may not be as well-known to everyone. That is antimony ore.

The scarcity of antimony compared to rare earths is primarily due to its extremely low concentration in the Earth's crust, uneven distribution, difficulty in enrichment, and limited global resource reserves. Antimony is rarer than rare earths not only because it is less abundant in nature but also because of its more uneven distribution and higher mining costs. These factors collectively make antimony more valuable and harder to obtain globally.

Fortunately, China's reserves of antimony ore rank first in the world. According to USGS data, the global antimony ore reserves were approximately 1.87 million tons in 2021, with China's reserves amounting to 448,800 tons, accounting for about 24% of the global total, and Russia's reserves reaching 336,600 tons, representing about 18% of the global share. Antimony is present in very low concentrations in the Earth's crust and is extremely difficult to enrich, mainly existing in the form of sulfides and sulfate minerals. There are more than 120 known minerals and antimony-containing minerals, but only more than 10 have industrial value.

However, China is also a major exporter of antimony.

Global antimony ore production is mainly concentrated in China and Russia, with a combined share of 72% in 2022. According to USGS statistics, the global antimony ore production reached 111,000 tons in 2022, with China's production being the highest in the world at about 60,000 tons, accounting for 54% of the global output. Russia follows with a production of 20,000 tons, representing 18% of the global output, and the top two countries together hold a 72% share.

Global distribution of antimony ore production by country

Unfortunately, the known global reserves of antimony resources can only meet approximately 24 years of demand, while the resource reserves of rare earths are estimated to last longer based on the current rate of extraction.Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) indicates that the global antimony resource reserves are only about 1.5 to 2 million tons, while the annual consumption is about 130,000 to 180,000 tons, with a reserve-to-production ratio as low as less than 5 years. This is significantly lower than the exploitable years for rare earths. For instance, the exploitable years for antimony mines in China are only 4.9 years, below the world average (10.95 years), and far below Russia (24.31 years) and Bolivia (114.81 years).

This suggests that the supply of antimony is more tense, the difficulty of mining is greater, and its substitutability is poor, leading to a higher market value and scarcity level compared to rare earths.

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Strategic Metals with New Energy Attributes

In addition to being rare in reserves, antimony holds extremely important strategic value in various fields such as semiconductors and military industry.

Antimony, with the English name Antimony and the chemical symbol Sb, has an atomic number of 51. It is located in the fifth period, group VA of the periodic table, and possesses a mix of metallic and non-metallic characteristics. Its pure form is a silver-white metal, brittle, non-ductile, and has poor electrical and thermal conductivity.

Unlike most substances, antimony exhibits thermal contraction and expansion upon cooling within a certain temperature range. Metallic antimony has a scaly crystal structure and is not oxidized at room temperature, but can react with oxygen to form white antimony trioxide when heated.

Antimony is extremely low in abundance and unevenly distributed in the Earth's crust, with an abundance of about (0.2-0.4) * 10^-6. In nature, antimony is typically concentrated in the sulfides of copper, lead, and silver, and is associated with arsenic, bismuth, and silver. Its most important mineral is stibnite (Sb2S3), followed by the oxides valentinite and antimony bloom, among others. Antimony has a wide range of downstream applications and is vividly referred to as "industrial monosodium glutamate."

In the semiconductor field, antimony-based semiconductor materials (such as indium antimonide, gallium antimonide, etc.) are widely used in the third-generation ultra-high-speed, ultra-low-power integrated circuits and infrared detectors due to their unique physical and chemical properties. These materials have an extremely narrow bandgap and high electron mobility, making them extremely useful in the fields of infrared detection and laser technology.Antimony-based semiconductors possess an irreplaceable and unique advantage in developing the next generation of devices that are small in size, lightweight, low power consumption, and low cost. This makes them widely applicable in areas such as phased array radar, satellite communication, and portable mobile devices.

Antimony-based semiconductor materials are an important foundation for manufacturing infrared detectors. For instance, indium antimonide (InSb) has a bandgap of 0.23eV at 77K, making it suitable for mid-wavelength infrared detection in the 3-5μm band. Moreover, the technology of antimonide quantum well lasers is continuously breaking through, further promoting the development of infrared optoelectronic devices.

Stibium (Sb2In) is a significant semiconductor material primarily used for manufacturing infrared detectors, Hall elements, substrates for resistive components, pressure-sensitive materials, etc. These infrared detectors have been widely applied in military systems such as precision guidance, search and tracking, reconnaissance, and optoelectronic countermeasures, becoming an essential part of the optoelectronic field in weapon systems.

Military enthusiasts are quite familiar with infrared dogfight missiles, with the representative equipment being the American AIM-9 "Sidewinder" series. The principle of this type of missile is its high sensitivity to the infrared radiation produced by heat, especially the exhaust gases from jet engine aircraft, which are extremely hot and produce stronger infrared radiation. This provides an excellent tracking heat source for the infrared seeker (homing device), allowing the missile to hit the aircraft as long as it follows this heat source within range.

Antimony and its compounds are often used as high-energy flame retardants in the engines of modern fighter jets and long-range strategic missiles to increase combustion temperature and thrust. These flame retardants enhance the fire resistance of materials, thereby improving the stability and safety of aircraft under extreme conditions.

Antimony can also increase the hardness and strength of metals, making it widely used in the manufacturing of gun and cannon barrels. Lead-based alloys containing antimony are corrosion-resistant and are the preferred materials for producing chemical pumps, chemical pipelines, and cable sheaths; alloys of antimony with tin, aluminum, and copper have high strength and extreme wear resistance, making them excellent materials for manufacturing bearings, bushings, and gears. The demand for antimony sulfide in military equipment such as ammunition primers and detonators is stable. Additionally, antimony is used as a detonator in conventional small arms and large weapon ammunition.

The importance of antimony even surpasses that of gallium and germanium because it is an indispensable material for the production of ammunition. The CEO of the renowned American military company Raytheon has stated that without Chinese antimony, Raytheon would not be able to operate normally. With thousands of suppliers in China, this statement once again confirms the concerns of the United States.

The development of antimonide semiconductors has become one of the strategic directions for the development of China's fourth-generation semiconductor core technologies. It provides the key to independently mastering the critical technology for breaking through traditional system technology blockades and has rich and profound research connotations in the field of condensed matter basic physics.It is worth mentioning that due to its relative scarcity, wide application, and certain military attributes, antimony is considered a strategic mineral resource by the United States, the European Union, China, and others. In 2010, the European Union included antimony among 14 critical raw materials in its preliminary report "Critical Raw Materials for the EU"; in 2016, China listed antimony in the strategic mineral catalog in the "National Mineral Resource Planning (2016-2020)"; in 2018, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) designated antimony as one of the 35 critical mineral commodities for the United States.

In the field of new energy vehicles, lead-acid batteries are irreplaceable, and the market size is steadily expanding. Antimony is primarily used in this field for the grid alloy of the positive plate of starter lead-acid batteries. Lead-acid batteries have advantages in terms of performance at high and low temperatures, consistency in combination, and recycling and reuse, and have been widely used in various fields such as automobiles, electric vehicles, electricity, and communication base stations for a long time.

Commentary: The importance of strategic minor metals is highlighted.

Strategic minor metals refer to those rare metals that hold significant positions in the national economy and security, and are particularly noted for their scarcity and non-renewability. These metals play an indispensable role in many key industrial sectors, such as new energy, new materials, and high-end equipment manufacturing.

Antimony is a typical non-renewable strategic minor metal, with rigid characteristics on the supply side and relatively elastic market demand. Antimony has a wide range of applications in both traditional steel fields and emerging new energy fields, hence its price is determined by demand, while supply affects the price elasticity. For instance, China holds more than half of the global market share in antimony resources, which gives China significant influence in the global antimony market.

In addition to antimony, other common strategic minor metals include tungsten, tin, nickel, cobalt, lithium, zirconium, chromium, niobium, tantalum, germanium, iridium, etc. Although these metals constitute a small proportion of the cost in products, they play a crucial supporting role in the development of strategic emerging industries due to their unique physical and chemical properties. For example, molybdenum, as a "strategic rare minor metal," is not only in high demand in the traditional steel sector but also plays an important role in the new energy sector.

Due to the typically low production of these metals, limited market supply, and irreplaceability in technological applications, they often become the focus of economic struggles between nations.