The Department of War announced today a $43.4 million Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III award to Alaska Range Resources, LLC (ARR). The award will enable ARR to extract, concentrate, and refine extracted stibnite to produce military grade antimony trisulfide. This investment uses funds from the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022 and supports the Administration's goal to increase the production of processed critical minerals and other derivative products as articulated in the March 20, 2025, Executive Order 14241 - Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production.
"Antimony metal and antimony trisulfide have critical applications in munitions, especially low and medium caliber, where it is used in primer production and case hardening," said Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy Mike Cadenazzi. "The award to ARR advances North American sourcing of this critical mineral for the defense industrial base."
With this DPA Title III funding, ARR will complete environmental studies to finalize permitting, geological surveys, and testing to optimize and target its drilling activities; initiate stibnite extraction; conclude its metallurgical study; construct and commission its concentration plant; and construct and commission its refinery. Stibnite is the most abundant naturally occurring ore of antimony. There are significant deposits of stibnite in Stibium, Alaska, and other prospects across the Estelle Project in Alaska where ARR is currently executing a mining operation.
"China and Russia control the market for antimony and all its derivatives, putting the United States at risk of interruptions that could jeopardize national security," added Mr. Jeffrey Frankston, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Resilience. "Establishing domestic sources for critical metals and minerals like antimony and its compounds enhances the long-term resilience of our supply chains."
This award complements and builds upon the success of previous DPA awards which significantly accelerate domestic antimony production. This award is needed to further de-risk the nation's antimony supply by increasing mine production levels to meet more of the U.S.'s antimony demand for a range of national security applications.
This is one of 17 awards made by the DPA Purchases Office totaling $856.2 million since the beginning of fiscal year 2025. Recipient cost shares total $88.0 million since the beginning of FY 2025. The DPA Purchases Office is overseen by the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) directorate.
