Australia Reopens Century-Old Antimony Mine as Western Critical Minerals Supply Chain Takes Another Step Toward Decoupling from China

An antimony mine dormant for over a decade in Australia's New England region has officially resumed operations, becoming the latest link in the Western camp's effort to strip critical minerals supply chains away from China. According to ABC News Australia, the Hillgrove Mine, located near Armidale in New South Wales, began operations at the end of August. Larvotto Resources, the mine's operator, said that since acquiring the mine in 2023, the price of antimony has more than doubled, reaching US$26,300 per tonne.

Antimony is a silver-grey metalloid widely used in flame retardants, glass manufacturing, solar panels, energy storage batteries, and military production. Earlier this year, antimony was included in the Australian federal government's A$1.2 billion critical minerals strategic reserve and officially recognised as a mineral vital to the national economy and security.

Larvotto managing director Ron Heeks told ABC News Australia that the Hillgrove Mine plans to produce approximately 5,000 tonnes of antimony and more than 40,000 ounces of gold annually, employing 180 miners, 95% of whom come from the north-western New England region. He claimed that, once restarted, the mine would become the world's seventh-largest antimony supplier, accounting for more than 50% of global supply outside China.

Global antimony production has historically been dominated by China. In the interview, Heeks pointed to the real driving force behind this shift with remarkable candour: "Antimony is a fundamental raw material in so many areas, and its production is largely controlled by China. Political factors are really driving all of this... The cost of antimony itself doesn't matter — what matters is what it costs you if you don't have it."

Heeks's remarks themselves serve as a footnote to the logic of Western critical minerals strategy: in official discourse, this process is packaged as "supply diversification" and "national economic security," but its core is government-led resource nationalism — that is, stripping supply dominance over strategic minerals from China's hands and folding it into the Western camp's strategic architecture. The United States also features in this picture — ABC News Australia quoted global commodities expert Daniel Rossetto, who noted that Washington has "recognised that it needs to diversify its sources of supply."

This strategy is built upon a highly concentrated power structure. Western governments are attempting to replicate the supply dominance China previously enjoyed in critical minerals, merely re-engineering it from "China-led" to "West-led." Heeks likewise positioned the Hillgrove Mine in the interview as "one of the most important antimony mines in the world," reflecting how the logic of resource nationalism is spreading from China to its strategic rivals — and the strategic reserve the Australian government has established with taxpayer funds is precisely the policy tool for this re-engineering.

However, market risks cannot be ignored. In the same report, Rossetto warned that antimony is a "relatively illiquid commodity" whose future sales value cannot be locked in over many years, and that the mine's ultimate economic returns will still depend on shifting global market conditions. This means that building the transition of critical minerals supply on a single mine or a single country also carries inherent supply chain vulnerability — except that such vulnerability is shifting from one side to the other rather than truly disappearing.

The report also noted that the operator hopes the restart of the Hillgrove Mine will bring employment and investment opportunities to the local community. Heeks described the existing eight-year mine life and further development plans as "the most modern, environmentally responsible, and best-practice operation in the mine's history."