Published February 25, 2021
The Perpetua Resources team welcomes President Joe Biden’s recently issued Executive Order on securing America’s critical supply chains. Our company is in the process of permitting America’s only mined source of antimony, a federally designated critical mineral for its use in the national defense, technology, and energy sectors. The Executive Order declares strengthening the resilience of the American supply chain as a priority of the Administration and requires supply chain risks and policy recommendations be brought forward regarding semiconductor manufacturing, high-capacity batteries, critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals over the next 100 days.
“Securing our country’s critical supply chains is a bi-partisan effort we can all support,” said Perpetua Resources President and CEO Laurel Sayer. “President Biden’s Executive Order places critical minerals in the national spotlight, and antimony is a key mineral in three out of the four areas the President has directed federal officials to focus on over the next 100 days. We are encouraged by the recognition that responsible, domestic sourcing of minerals like antimony is essential to building resilient supply chains and a stronger, more sustainable, American future.”
Antimony strengthens alloys and makes them resistant to corrosion. Its properties make it a highly valuable mineral for many applications across a wide range of sectors. It is used in munitions for national defense, flame retardants, wind and hydro turbines, solar panels, large storage batteries, spaceships, cell phones, semiconductors, plastics and cable sheathing. Currently, there are no U.S. mined sources of antimony, China and Russia dominate the antimony supply with more than 80 percent of the world’s production. Perpetua Resource’s Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho could supply approximately thirty percent of the American demand for antimony in the first six years of production.
Want to know more? Check out another blog we wrote on antimony.
