China Unveils Restrictions on Antimony Exports in Latest Critical Minerals Controls

China is the dominant global producer of antimony, which has applications for electric vehicles and military weapons makers.

China has unveiled export restrictions on antimony, a crucial metal for batteries and nuclear weapons, further tightening its hold on the supply chains of strategic minerals in which it dominates global production.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Aug. 15 that antimony and its chemical compounds will be subjected to export controls starting Sept. 15. Traders looking to export the mineral in various forms will now have to obtain a license from the ministry and provide detailed information about the overseas buyers and their export plans.

In a separate statement, the commerce ministry’s spokesperson said the restrictions are meant to “safeguard national security” and fulfill international obligations related to“non-proliferation.”

The latest measures also target technology and equipment used for smelting and separating materials, as well as other products associated with what the ministry referred to as super-hard materials.

China is the dominant global producer of antimony that has applications for electric vehicles and military weapons makers. While China’s share of global antimony production has decreased in recent years, it still accounted for almost half of the world’s antimony mine production in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

The U.S. Department of the Interior has designated antimony a mineral critical to economic and national security. According to the USGS, there is currently no domestic mining of the mineral in the United States, and China serves as the primary source of imported antimony.

A 2021 study published by the U.S. International Trade Commission found that antimony is most commonly used in the United States for fireproofing uniforms and lead-acid storage batteries.

The metal also plays a key role in making a wide range of military equipment, including nuclear weapons and infrared sensors.

Due to a limited supply and increasing demand, the price of antimony has soared to record levels, surpassing $22,000 per metric ton, and has nearly doubled since the beginning of the year. The new restrictions announced by Beijing are expected to further drive up the minor metal’s price.

Amid tensions with the West, the regime has already tightened its controls over the supply chains of several critical minerals.

From August 2023, gallium and germanium, two rare metals that are critical to the manufacturing of semiconductors, are subjected to export restrictions, China’s commerce ministry announced in July 2023, citing the need to protect national security.

China holds a dominant position in mining the two rare minerals. It supplied around 80 percent of the world’s production of gallium and 60 percent of germanium, according to Critical Raw Materials Alliance.

The risk of relying on communist China for those critical minerals was brought into stark relief in October of last year when the regime announced export controls on graphite, which is essential to power electric vehicles.

A loader shifts soil containing rare-earth minerals at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China, on Sept. 5, 2010. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

China controls over 65 percent of the world’s supply of graphite. The restriction will ban Chinese exporters from shipping natural and artificial graphite and their products from December 2023, unless companies obtain licenses.

The regime’s order came just three days after Washington unveiled new curbs on semiconductor exports to Beijing.

U.S. lawmakers have called the restriction the latest evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s weaponization of trade over supply chain chokepoints.

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China Unveils Restrictions on Antimony Exports in Latest Critical Minerals Controls

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