4 November 2025

Antimony: the flame-retardant metalloid with a concentrated supply chain

Key insights from this briefing

How does antimony trioxide help flame-retardant systems work?

Antimony trioxide acts mainly as a synergist rather than a stand-alone flame retardant. During combustion it reacts with halogenated compounds to form heavy antimony halide gases that interfere with the flame chemistry and help suppress combustion.

Why is the antimony supply chain strategically vulnerable?

The briefing notes that China, Russia and Tajikistan dominate more than 90% of global production. Antimony is also commonly recovered from complex stibnite-bearing ores and can create processing problems in gold smelting, making new independent refining capacity expensive to establish.

Excerpt from this briefing's Industry Insight

Antimony is strategically important because it performs functions that are difficult to replace, especially in flame-retardant systems. Antimony trioxide acts as a synergist with halogenated compounds during combustion, helping suppress flame propagation, while antimony is also used to harden lead in batteries and specialised alloys. Supply is highly concentrated, and antimony often occurs in complex ores where it can be a processing penalty rather than a primary target. Building independent Western processing capacity is therefore as important as finding new deposits.

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