China to control exports of critical mineral antimony from next month
Beijing will impose export controls on rare antimony metals, ores and oxides, effective from September 15.
In an online statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs said the move was set to safeguard national security, defend its interests and also fulfil its non-proliferation obligations.
Antimony is used in the semiconductor industry for the production of certain silicon wafers, diodes and infrared detectors.
The United States considers antimony a mineral critical to economic and national security – a distinction also held by rare earth elements such as cobalt and uranium, according to the US International Trade Commission.
China’s antimony ore production stood at 40,000 metric tonnes last year, accounting for nearly half of the world’s total.
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