#ChinaGrab EP 1 - How China Monopolized Antimony & Hit US Defense Supply Chains

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]I'm starting a new series. It's called #China grabb as in grab. What is happening is we are coming across several instances where countries are being held to ransom by China. They give you some money and then they put you in a bear-like grip from where there is just no way out. Example Sri Lanka Hanto and I'm also told Kurimu port also is in trouble. So what happened in Hanto is Sri Lanka got China to build its four-lane roads that connected the south to the north and you could go from the south to the north in like just 4 hours flat all that plus they helped them in uh getting rid of the LTT fighters and in exchange they gave them a deal which they took thinking that they will be able to pay back. The only problem was that they could not and then they were forced to seed Hammon to China. Right now, Hammonto is being owned by China on a 99-year lease. The only condition that they could put was that China doesn't put troops there. But then the story is that you look at anybody who is walking about in civilian clothing in humble port. They all have the military bearing like this, right? Karak Singh. So this is what China is for you. I'm going to talk about two different stories for now and as more stories come up, I'll be adding those also. First one is about China grab on antimony and this is something that took place in Canada.

[00:01:30]Though some of you Canadians you get your knickers in a twist whenever you know Trump says I'm going to come and annex Canada. You know at least he's telling you what he's going to do. I'm not saying he's right or wrong. I'm just telling you he's telling you before he does it. China does it in a very backward way, in a backhanded way. They will always stick it to you in the back.

[00:01:50]What happened? I'm going to share that with you using a slide deck. As always, a request to please like, share, and subscribe to our channel and also to follow wherever you are watching this.

[00:02:00]Here we go. So, China's resource chess antimoney. What is antimony? It's a metal. We all know that. And uh it's a critical resource. And I will tell you by the end of this uh slide deck why it is critical and how China is controlling that. This is just like rare earths.

[00:02:18]They have done the same playbook in this case also. And what they did is they bought a Canadian mine. There was only one mine for antimony in Canada. It's called the Beaverbrook. And they bought that. And then what they did was they immediately shut it down. The mine has remained idle since 2023. Why? Because if you reduce supply, what happens? The prices go up. And how much they went up, I'll tell you in just a moment. What happens is this is a strategic imbalance that gets created. But more importantly, this is a critical mineral that is needed for many things and I'll come to that also in a minute. Where is Beaverbrook? It lies 45 kilometers southwest of Glenwood, New Funland and Labrador in a remote inland setting.

[00:03:05]This is on the Atlantic coast very close to that. Production history is highly intermittent. It started up in 2012.

[00:03:12]Then it shut down in 13. It restarted in 2019. then closed again in 2023. The mine is on formal care and maintenance.

[00:03:22]That means that it can be relatively quickly restarted like a switch. Think of it that way. China's 2024 antimony export curbs drove prices up boosting leverage for the western assets. But this is only on paper. China owns it and China wants it shut. Why? I'll tell you that in a second. What is the reason for using antimony? Antimony is alloyed with lead to make bullets harder, more durable and capable of maintaining shape on impact. It is used in primers, detonators, explosive compounds. And it also improves ignition reliability and stability in missiles and munitions.

[00:04:05]That means anything to do with missiles and munitions, you need antimony. Its compounds are critical in infrared sensors and optics enabling thermal imaging and night vision capabilities.

[00:04:18]Night vision is when you can see it at night which means you have IR sensors that can actually see at night and give you an sense of what you are looking at in terms of terrain. And thermal imaging is it finds a heat source and then it can tell you what the contours of that heat source are. also widely used in military gear, electronics and vehicles to reduce fire risk in combat and high heat environments. That means it is fire retardant. Now that's not all. Antimony is used in chips, diodes, and sensors used in advanced defense systems and communication equipment. So just think about it. By denying antimony to the United States, what are they trying to do? They're trying to make sure that some of the critical defense equipment cannot be manufactured without China coming to know about it. It also is used in lead acid battery. I mean it finds wide spread usage. Let's put it that way. So what happens is it also strengthens metal. So if you're going to have armor plating, you're going to use antimony. It also improves clarity and durability in optical lenses used in surveillance and targeting system.

[00:05:26]Antimony is stibnum in Latin if I remember correctly SB and its atomic number is 51. Now China in 2023 closes down the plant right in Canada. Then what does it do? It imposes export controls in 2024 and later banned antimony exports to the US military. No more to the US military. Just like rare earth materials, shipment to the US dropped by nearly 97% exposing dependency risks. These restrictions triggered global shortages and supply chain instabilities. When such things happen, what happened? The price goes up and up and up and up. I'll tell you just in a minute how much it went up. The move is widely seen as a geopolitical tool rather than a pure economic decision. Well, from 13,000 when all these things were put into play, the prices of antimony surged from 13,000 to 60,000 per ton, almost fivefold, four and a half if you want.

[00:06:31]Some of you are better in math than I am. The spike caused supply shortages forcing some industries to declare force majour. Force majour, we've talked about it. That means just people, yeah, I have a contract with you to supply it at a certain price, but I cannot because I just can't afford to buy it at this cost. So what happened then? Those companies that were making products using antimony, they shut down. You see how China is crippling the United States? Analysts suggest China could control prices by opening or closing supply taps strategically.

[00:07:05]This ability to influence global markets gives Beijing a significant leverage.

[00:07:10]Yes indeed. So the other part is how much of the antimony supply of the world was Beaverbrook providing 5%. 5% and that was so close to the United States.

[00:07:23]That's a big deal. It shutdown coincided with rising western demand. And not just this but also for rare earth metals.

[00:07:31]We've talked about how much each F-35 needs, right? Industry observers believe the mind could be used strategically to influence market conditions. The situation highlights how resource control can be affected without active production. I mean we can think of it even as weaponization, right? So what did the United States do? It doesn't have any mines. It is trying to get its first mine started. I'll tell you who is producing how much antimony in just a moment. The US has launched a $10 billion critical minerals reserve initiative called project vault to counter dependencies. Washington also signed multiple bilateral agreements to diversify supply chains. In just a minute, you will see that even that is not going to help us a whole lot. You'll know why when you see who is producing how much of antimoney. companies like US antimony and perpetual resources are receiving funding support but it is now I mean you start mining now or you start locating places where antimony ores are then you mine it then you clean it then you make it into a metal it's going to take a while however rebuilding supply chains will take years leaving short-term vulnerabilities this is the problem so the other interesting thing is this fellow who's the prime minister now marked something and He has, you know, really flamed passions within Canada as if US is the aggressor and that it's going to come and take over Canada. But Mark Harney, what about this? Will he be able to rest this company, declare it as a critical sector, antimony as a critical sector and rest it from China's control? Heck, half the cabinet probably is on the take from China. We have talked about this with the his predecessor, right? Anyway, I'm just saying it's just a hopeless situation. Canadians need to wake up and smell the coffee. Despite earlier moves to limit Chinese influence in lithium, Beaverbrook remains under Chinese control. This highlights policy inconsistencies in managing critical mineral assets. The issue underscores the challenge of balancing investment with national security concerns. So here is the manufacturing of antimony who is the ones controlling the production China 50 to 55% Russia 15 to 20%. You add those two that comes to 65 to 75%. Means three out of four tons will be from China or Russia. Then Tajakistan has 10 to 12% that's probably still under the orbit of Russia. You are hopeless. I mean the situation is really hopeless. United States is nowhere. It's 0%. It's only now starting to look for mines, then you know fund some startups, then those guys will start mining. I mean, you're talking about a long time, guys.

[00:10:25]Australia has 2%, Canada has that 1 to 2% potential. This is beyond the one that we are talking about. Myanmar has 5 to 7%, Turkey has 3 to 5%, Bolivia has 2 to 3%. So the situation looks pretty dire as far as United States is concerned on where it can get or source antimony. Maybe they'll start mining in Mars. Who knows? Broader geopolitical implications are that China dominates global antimony mining, refining and processing capacity. Western nations face high dependency on a single supplier for critical defense materials.

[00:11:04]The situation mirrors broader trends in rare earths and semiconductor supply chains. It signals a shift where resource control becomes a central tool for global geopolitical competitions. So there you have it. What is the United States going to do? More importantly, what is Canada going to do? It has also run up deficits. It's in a bad bad shape. US is not in as bad an economic shape as Canada is. many of their universities will have to shut down because there are no students because most of the students used to be from India and that tap has been closed unless they reopened it again. I don't remember that but I would know if they had reopened it. So problems for Canada.

[00:11:45]I don't know what they're going to do, but clearly you are seeing a game plan that China is putting into play and this doesn't augur good for the world.

[00:11:54]Because when you see the next episode China Grab where I'm talking about how China has basically got Iraq by the throat, you will understand how ruthless they are. As a matter of fact, the story is that Imran Khan was hated by both China and the United States. By China because to IMF, he revealed the terms of loan of China to Pakistan and China didn't like it. You know that Pakistan owes close to $30 billion, right? And uh then the United States didn't like Imran because he was taking pot shots too many times at the United States perhaps and maybe there were other things that he was doing. I think they he went to Russia on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. I think that was the last straw on the camel's back as far as US was concerned. So you have the situation now the way it is today and this is not very good. Like I said you know I don't carry a briefcase for uh United States either.

[00:12:52]I just see it. I say it. Do watch our episode. We are very centric. We try to look at the data and tell you what the analysis looks like and we'll continue to do that. Thanks for watching. Please like, share and subscribe to our channel. Don't forget to click on the bell button for notifications. Namaskar.