The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded dual-listed Perpetua Resources two funding grants to study the domestic production of military-grade antimony trisulphide – an essential component in ammunition and dozens of other defence materials.
Perpetua will receive $200 000 in total from the DoD Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to evaluate whether antimony from the Stibnite gold project, in Idaho, can meet military specifications.
"Antimony from the Stibnite gold project site served our national defence needs during World War Two and Perpetua is confident we can be part of the solution again," said president and CEO Laurel Sayer.
Perpetua submitted two proposals to DLA's "Production of Energetic Materials and Associated Precursors" Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant solicitation. As described in the grant's objective, the programme is focused on reducing "foreign reliance and single points of failure for the domestic manufacturing of energetic materials" through the development of a domestic source. After a competitive review process, Perpetua was awarded SBIR Phase 1 funding of $100 000 for both programmes. Each study is expected to be completed within the next six to 12 months.
The first programme will test existing samples of antimony trisulphide ore from the project for development into antimony trisulfide to military specifications. The second programme will study alternative processing opportunities to develop military-specification antimony trisulphide from high-purity antimony metal.
After the completion of the proposed programmes, Phase 2 funding could be made available for more advanced stage pilot-scale testing within the next year. Together, the Phase 1 and Phase 2 programme could confirm the project's ability to provide the domestic antimony source needed to meet the defence procurement demand and support commercial markets.
Antimony trisulphide is produced from high purity antimony ore feedstock and is used in small and medium caliber munitions, mortars, artillery, mines, flares, grenades, shoulder launched munitions and missiles. Currently, China, Russia and Tajikistan control about 90% of the world's antimony supply and the US has no domestically mined source of the critical mineral.
Perpetua's proposed Stibnite gold project hosts one of the biggest antimony deposits in the world independent of China, Russia and their interests.