Canada’s only primary antimony mine, the Beaver Brook operation in Newfoundland and Labrador, has remained idle despite rising demand for the strategic metal, highlighting growing concerns over Western dependence on foreign-controlled critical mineral supply chains.
The Beaver Brook mine, located in central Newfoundland about 45 km southwest of the town of Glenwood, is owned by China Minmetals, a Chinese state-owned mining group. Originally acquired in 2009 by Hunan Nonferrous Metals for $29.5 million, the mine has been under Minmetals’ control for the past 15 years.
Antimony is considered a strategic critical mineral due to its use in flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, semiconductors, and a range of defence technologies including ammunition, infrared sensors and night-vision equipment.
Strategic value
Beaver Brook first began producing antimony concentrate in 2012 but suspended operations the following year amid weak market conditions. The mine briefly restarted in 2019 before shutting down again in 2023.
At full capacity, the project has the potential to produce roughly 6,000 tonnes of antimony concentrate annually, which analysts say could account for about 5% of global supply.
The shutdown came just as countries in North America and Europe began to wake up to the idea of establishing a secure, diversified supply of minerals like antimony under the current geopolitical environment.
China, the main U.S. economic rival, currently dominates the global antimony supply chain, controlling the majority of the mining, refining and processing capacity. In 2024, Beijing began restricting its exports of the mineral, leading to a sharp rise in global antimony prices and exposing the market’s overreliance on one source.
“Antimony has been in a persistent deficit for years, driven by declining ore grades, stagnating Chinese mine investment and strong demand growth from the solar sector,” BMO analysts Helen Amos and George Heppel said in report on Monday. “The introduction of Chinese export controls in 2024 caused prices to spike fourfold and triggered acute shortages of the material in Western markets.”
Under spotlight
The situation has attracted attention from policymakers and industry observers who say the dormant Canadian mine underscores the West’s vulnerability in critical minerals, as highlighted by investigative journalist Sam Cooper.
There has been industry chatter in Canadian mining and political circles about Beijing’s possible strategic intentions for the asset, according to a 2025 presentation by Northern Miner Group President Anthony Vaccaro that is cited in Cooper’s report.
“There are rumours that the Chinese use this — that Beaver Brook is on care and maintenance, but if the price of antimony stays high and other projects come on, they can turn the tap on, flood the market a little bit, drive the price back down, discourage others from entering,” Vaccaro said.
While Canada has pushed to reduce Chinese involvement in parts of its mining sector — ordering Chinese companies in 2022 to divest from several Canadian lithium exploration firms on national security grounds — the Chinese ownership of Beaver Brook has remained unchanged.
The threat of Beijing “manipulating” the global antimony market highlights just one of many complex challenges facing Western governments as they attempt to build resilient supply chains while balancing investment flows and geopolitical considerations.
Critical minerals race
Demand for antimony is expected to increase as Western governments accelerate spending on defence, electronics and energy infrastructure. The U.S., Canada and their allies have all launched initiatives to rebuild domestic critical mineral production and processing capacity, aiming to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains.
In the U.S., Washington has begun channeling funding toward domestic producers and projects that could supply antimony and other strategic metals. Companies such as United States Antimony (NYSE: UAMY), which operates processing facilities in Montana and Mexico, and Perpetua Resources (NASDAQ: PPTA), developer of the Stibnite gold-antimony project in Idaho, have attracted millions in funding support as part of efforts to rebuild a secure domestic supply of the metal.
“Even with supply concerns easing recently, antimony remains a market of key strategic importance,” BMO’s Amos and Heppel wrote. “The metal is extremely difficult to substitute in many military applications, while mining and refining capacity remains heavily concentrated in China, Russia and Tajikistan.”
Industry insiders echo BMO’s report, saying that projects such as Beaver Brook could become increasingly important as countries look to secure reliable sources of strategic metals.
“We continue to characterize antimony as a ‘most critical’ metal for supply security and expect it to benefit from government-backed supply chain investment in the coming years,” the BMO analysts said.
