The political tensions between China and the United States of America continue to rise. And now, it’s leading to the banning of critical minerals.
What’s happening:
- China has officially announced they will ban the exportation of gallium, germanium and antimony to the United States of America
Why it matters:
- Antimony, gallium and germanium all have exceptionally important applications for combat and military purposes and are also all relatively rare minerals to find large deposits of within North America
- China previously announced they would restrict the exportation of both gallium and antimony to other countries, which they have now escalated into an outright ban of any exportation to the United States
Going deeper:
- The public markets have been seeing a renewed interest in antimony lately, following the notable approval for Perpetua Resources (NASDAQ: PPTA) to begin operations at their historic Idaho gold project which contains a significant antimony deposit
The intrigue:
- Gallium also has applications for semiconductor manufacturing, which has led to a spike in demand amidst the boom in high performance computing and artificial intelligence
