Commentary
If you were asked to name the most important critical mineral in existence, what would you name? Maybe bauxite, a sedimentary rock with a high aluminum content; maybe cobalt, a metal used in the construction of aircraft engines and gas turbines; or maybe lithium, which is used in the production of electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
But what about antimony? After all, it’s the most important mineral you’ve never heard of, according to Forbes, and sadly, the United States is running dangerously low on it. The reasons why will shock and anger many readers.
In many ways, antimony, a metalloid that is silvery and brittle in nature, is a silent hero. While the aforementioned cobalt and lithium get all the plaudits, antimony receives little attention. That’s because very few people even know what it is, let alone its many uses.
In a brilliant essay for online magazine IM—1776, author and cultural commentator Pedro Gonzalez discusses the many ways in which the war in Ukraine is milking the United States dry. The United States, Gonzalez notes, has sent roughly “a third of its total inventory of anti-tank Javelin missiles and one-quarter of its stockpile of anti-air Stinger missiles” to Ukraine. Replacing these weapons won’t be easy; in fact, some authors in the know say it will take many years.
One of the reasons why replacing the missiles will take years involves antimony, which is used to manufacture virtually every piece of military equipment imaginable, from missiles to armor-piercing bullets, explosives to night vision goggles, and even nuclear weapons. The United States doesn’t have any antimony mines. In the words of Gonzalez, “the last American mine in Idaho ceased production in 1997.”
Today, China—the United States’ biggest rival—possesses more than three-quarters of the world’s total supply of antimony. As of 2021, China had approximately 480,000 metric tons of the mineral. Russia, a close ally of China, has the second-largest antimony reserves, at 350,000 metric tons. The remainder of the world’s reserves can be found in South Africa, Tajikistan, and Bolivia—three countries where numerous Chinese-backed businesses can be found mining away. This means that the United States relies heavily on China for antimony. As the metalloid is a key ingredient in the manufacturing of weapons, this means the United States, supposedly the most powerful nation in the world, must rely on China and Russia for its weaponry.
A view of a PsiQuantum Wafer, a silicon wafer containing thousands of quantum devices, including single-photon detectors, manufactured via PsiQuantum’s partnership with GlobalFoundries in Palo Alto, Calif., in March 2021. PsiQuantum/Handout via Reuters
If all of this isn’t worrying enough, antimony is also used to make a number of semiconductor devices. Although silicon is often used as the raw material of semiconductors, processors are getting considerably smaller and considerably more powerful. Tech gurus warn that silicon is fast reaching the limits of its rather limited ability, yet chips of the future will require even more of it.
When it comes to making smaller, more powerful chips, according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, antimony shows real promise of making silicon obsolete. The researchers note that antimony, unlike silicon, “is only a couple of atomic layers thick while still having a high charge mobility, or speed with which a charge moves through the material when being pulled by an electric field.” Moreover, antimony also possesses “a significantly higher charge mobility than silicon.” That’s why the metalloid should be viewed as a “building block for next-generation processors”—a building block that the United States no longer possesses, I might add. Signing off on a $270 billion semiconductor bill to battle China matters very little if you don’t possess the key ingredient for the chips of tomorrow.
As Washington sells out its country and people to fund a never-ending war in Ukraine, serious questions must be asked. What is the end goal here? Does one even exist? The answer appears to be a rather resounding no.
Washington recently approved yet another injection ($2.6 billion) of aid for its Ukrainian allies; this includes $675 million in weapons.
According to the BBC, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the new package will include “howitzers, munitions, Humvee vehicles, armoured ambulances and anti-tank systems.” The United States also plans to send more radar-hunting, antimony-laden missiles to Ukraine.
This latest cash-and-weapons injection means the United States has given the Ukrainian government almost $12 billion in aid. That’s a lot of money. Some authors fear that the weapons and the money aren’t going where they’re supposed to be going. In Ukraine, a country known for systemic corruption long before the Russian invasion occurred, fears over U.S.-funded weapons being intercepted by gangs are most definitely warranted.
Kurt Vonnegut, one of the 20th century’s sharpest writers, once wrote, “Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.” Has the United States learned nothing from two prolonged, ridiculously expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? For the Iraq War alone, U.S. taxpayers paid a total of $2 trillion. With the war in Ukraine, taxpayers can expect to pay yet another exorbitant sum of money.
Heavily in debt and low on essential weapons and minerals, the United States finds itself in a sorry state.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
