The United States is the largest country in the world in terms of comprehensive national strength and is also very rich in natural resources. But the U.S. Congress has recently begun to worry about their ammunition supply chain. Because the United States almost completely relies on China for antimony, an element that plays a major role in weapons and ammunition.
Facing a large amount of imports from the United States, China, as the world's largest antimony resource output and reserve, must also make a choice: How to use antimony, one of China's "four kings" strategic resources, is the optimal solution. What impact will it have on us if we sell or not?
1. What is antimony?
As a non-renewable precious metal resource, antimony has no ductility and is not easily oxidized at room temperature. It also has strong corrosion resistance. These special properties make antimony often used as a flame retardant and widely used in the manufacture of various chemicals, such as batteries used in our daily lives. In addition to daily applications, antimony metal is even found in various national defense weapons. Antimony is therefore called "industrial MSG".
According to data published by the United States Geological Survey , the current proven antimony content in the world is only 1.5 million tons. Such a valuable industrial essential oil has very few reserves in the world. This also highlights its importance. After all, the annual global consumption of antimony is about 130,000 tons. And no suitable substitute has been found to replace the role of antimony in production. According to current trends, there will be no antimony available in about 12 years.
Therefore, Western countries have also taken protective measures for such important and scarce antimony resources. EU was the first organization in the world to list antimony as the first scarce mineral raw material. In 2018, the United States also began to include antimony in the protection list. These European and American countries only allow exploration, but not mining.
2. China’s antimony resources
I believe everyone has heard the saying “ The Middle East has oil, and China has rare earths”. However, in fact, in addition to the well-known rare earths, China's antimony resource production and reserves also rank first in the world. And compared with rare earths, this resource is even scarcer.
As one of my country's four major strategic resources, China has unique advantages in the field of antimony resources. China accounts for 1/3 of the world's 1.5 million tons of reserves. In addition to my country, Russia, Bolivia and Australia still have relatively large reserves.
The innate reserves of antimony resources in Europe and the United States are actually very limited. For example, the United States is only 1/8 of that of my country. Therefore, as early as the end of the 20th century, my country has become the world's largest supplier of antimony resources, and now directly accounts for more than 70% of the world's supply.
When it comes to China's antimony industry, we have to mention the tin mines known as the antimony capital of the world. This mine located in Lengshuijiang City, Hunan Province has the world's largest reserves and quality of antimony, with reserves as high as 300,000 tons. The mining of mines has a history of hundreds of years, but in fact, at the beginning, people mistakenly regarded antimony ore as tin ore, which is why the name tin mine came into being.
The world's largest antimony manufacturer and supplier is Xikuang Danxing Antimony Company. The company has formed an industrial chain of mining, smelting, processing, and trading, which not only helped it capture 30% of the market share in China, but also occupied 25% of the global market, and is exported to many countries and regions at home and abroad.
3. Antimony resource development crisis
However, based on the current level and scale of mining, my country's antimony resources will be mined out within five years. After years of large-scale mining, the quality of my country’s existing antimony ore resources is also declining. Although there are still unexplored antimony resources, they must be protected as soon as possible.
At the same time, antimony mining will cause considerable damage to the surrounding environment. The chemical toxicity of antimonide has caused the rivers near tin mines to be polluted. At the same time, mining will also cause soil erosion. Extensive mining of antimony ores will have a long-term and huge impact on the surrounding ecosystem. Living in this environment for a long time will also pose a threat to the health of local people.
4. Protection of antimony resources
European and American countries have long begun to control this important resource. For example, there are no antimony mines in the United States now, and they mainly purchase them in China. Our country will not sit idly by and ignore this situation. In 2009, this issue attracted the attention of the Ministry of Land and Resources, which issued a notice to increase the control and management of the total amount of antimony ore mining. In 2016, the Ministry of Land and Resources took action again and included antimony minerals in the strategic mineral catalog.
At the same time, with the development of our country's economy, our country has also continued to strengthen export control of non-renewable strategic resources such as antimony resources to prevent underselling and over-selling. As a result, most of the antimony products produced today are no longer exported but retained for domestic use. believes that with the actions of the state, our country will make the best use of precious resources such as antimony ore to maximize its safe supply capacity and development and utilization level.
5. Conclusion
Our country is vast and rich in mineral resources, especially special elements like antimony, which have become an important booster for our country's development. However, we cannot rely on the simple sale of resources to develop. What is more important is to achieve breakthroughs in core technology. In the face of these precious non-renewable resources, we should take the initiative to better support the development of China's economy. What do you think?
