I have a new idea for you, one that’s much more speculative than gold. It’s a play on a mineral that our government wants as much of as it can possibly get. And yet, it’s in desperately short supply. I’m talking about antimony – and a company that mines it, United States Antimony Corp. (UAMY), remarks Sean Brodrick, editor at Weiss Ratings Daily.
Antimony is a shiny gray metalloid. It’s used as a fire retardant, as well as in things like photovoltaic glass and lead-acid batteries.
It’s also essential as a hardener in weapons of all sorts. The US Interior Department has listed antimony as a mineral critical to our economic and national security just like cobalt and uranium. And no wonder. Antimony is used as a hardening agent for bullets and tanks. Other armored vehicles, artillery shells, cruise missiles, and javelin missiles all contain antimony, too.
China produces about half of the world’s antimony. Global supply was already tightening when China, the world’s biggest exporter, imposed export controls starting on Sept. 15. Then, more recently, China tightened the screws. It outright banned exports to the US of gallium, germanium, antimony, and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications.
Oddly, this is not about the military (at least for now). Beijing is mad that the US is tightening restrictions on semiconductor exports to China. So, it hit back by stopping its critical metals exports to the US.
The price of antimony has already TRIPLED since May. No wonder, then, that Western governments are fast-tracking antimony mine developments and have been backing billion-dollar loans for similar mining projects.
UAMY is an American company that operates the US’s only antimony mill in Montana, which runs at about 50% capacity. Interestingly, UAMY inked a deal recently to test another company’s antimony ore, with the idea of processing that in Montana.
What’s more, United States Antimony recently staked 4,000 acres of claims in Alaska’s interior around an antimony mine that last produced ore in World War I. Why Alaska? Only four US states have known antimony deposits — Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada. Alaska holds deposits of nearly all the 50 minerals that the US Geological Survey considers “critical” to the American economy and national security.
I firmly believe this stock is going much higher as the hunger for antimony increases.
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