Paulson-backed Perpetua strikes antimony pact to blunt China ban
John Paulson-backed Perpetua Resources has agreed to work with Sunshine Silver Mining & Refining Co. to find ways within the US to process antimony, one of the critical minerals under China’s export ban.
Perpetua Resources signed a memorandum of understanding to explore antimony processing opportunities with Thomas Kaplan’s Sunshine Silver, the company said Monday in a statement. The non-binding agreement could see the firms combine resources together to meet as much as 40% of annual US demand of the metal, the statement said.
The move comes after China ratcheted up trade tensions with the US last week by banning its exports of gallium, germanium, antimony and super-hard materials used in high-tech and military applications. Beijing’s moves have previously sent a jolt through the White House, and threats by the Asian nation to limit these exports have been a worry among key US government departments in Washington.
Antimony has long been used by the military to harden bullets. The US Geological Survey said the main uses of the mineral are for metal products, such as ammunition and hardened lead, and as a fire retardant in safety equipment, and in household goods. There was no marketable antimony mined in the US last year, the USGS said.
The companies agreed to evaluate the potential for processing and refining antimony from Perpetua’s Stibnite gold project at Sunshine Silver’s mine, which is also in Idaho. Sunshine Silver’s founder and chairman is Kaplan, a mining magnate.
The agreement “is a step in evaluating a fully integrated American antimony supply chain,” Perpetua CEO Jon Cherry said in the statement. “The Stibnite gold project is the only identified domestic reserve of antimony.”
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