What is the mineral antimony used for?

Antimony is used for many technological and industrial purposes. Antimony is used as a hardening alloy for lead, especially in storage batteries and cable sheaths, and also used in bearing metal, type metal, solder, collapsible tubes and foil, sheet and pipes, and semiconductor technology.

What does China use antimony for?

Antimony is a little-known metalloid commonly used in lead-acid batteries and fire retardants, and while deposits are found worldwide, China’s large resource, low cost of production and significant processing capacity has seen the country dominate market supply.

Is antimony a critical mineral?

Antimony is a strategic critical mineral that is used in all manner of military applications, including the manufacture of armor piercing bullets, night vision goggles, infrared sensors, precision optics, laser sighting, explosive formulations, hardened lead for bullets and shrapnel, ammunition primers, tracer …

What mineral contains antimony?

stibnite
The principal ore minerals of antimony are stibnite and jamesonite, but it can also be a byproduct of certain other minerals. Eighty percent of the world’s antimony is produced from two types of deposits — carbonate replacement deposits and gold-antimony epithermal deposits.

What antimony does to the body?

Acute (short-term) exposure to antimony by inhalation in humans results in effects on the skin and eyes. Respiratory effects, such as inflammation of the lungs, chronic bronchitis, and chronic emphysema, are the primary effects noted from chronic (long-term) exposure to antimony in humans via inhalation.

How does antimony get into the body?

Antimony can enter your body when you drink water or eat food, soil, or other substances that contain antimony. Antimony can also enter your body if you breathe air or dust containing antimony.

How much antimony is there in the world?

The abundance of antimony in the Earth’s crust is estimated to be 0.2 to 0.5 parts per million, comparable to thallium at 0.5 parts per million and silver at 0.07 ppm. Even though this element is not abundant, it is found in more than 100 mineral species.

What properties does antimony have?

Antimony is a semimetallic chemical element which can exist in two forms: the metallic form is bright, silvery, hard and brittle; the non metallic form is a grey powder. Antimony is a poor conductor of heat and electricity, it is stable in dry air and is not attacked by dilute acids or alkalis.

How do you get antimony?

Antimony is sometimes found in pure form. It is also obtained from the mineral stibnite (antimony sulfide) and commonly is a by-product of lead-zinc-silver mining. Other antimony-bearing minerals include sibiconite, tetrahedrite and ullmannite. It is mined in China, Bolivia, South Africa and Mexico.

What is antimony?

Antimony, the 51st element on the periodic table (symbol: Sb), is a shiny, silver-gray metal that has been used by mankind for millennia. Relatively rare, it is sometimes found as a base metal, but more often occurs bound to other elements in one of up to 100 mineral compounds.

How to treat antimony ore?

furnace, and 45-60% antimony ores are treated by liquation or iron precipitation. A description of Wei-Tao, 1981). pyrometallurgical method suitable for low grade ores. Combusti on of the sulfide components of the ore supplies some of the hea t; hence fuel requirements are minor.

Can antimony be mined commercially?

Relation to Mining. Of these minerals, only stibnite (Sb2S3) is mined commercially as a source for metallic antimony. Antimony is found in trace amounts in silver, copper and lead ores, and it is usually economically possible, as well as environmentally desirable, to extract the antimony from these ores when they are smelted.

What are the uses of antimony and stibnite?

Antimony is used as a hardening alloy for lead, especially in storage batteries and cable sheaths, and also used in bearing metal, type metal, solder, collapsible tubes and foil, sheet and pipes, and semiconductor technology. Stibnite is used for metal antifriction alloys, metal type, shot, batteries, and in the manufacture of fireworks.