Opportunities Emerge After the Hype
The commodities sector usually also experiences dislocations during sharp market sell-offs. Junior miners in particular are often hit hardest. These shares have lower liquidity than the industry heavyweights, so larger sell orders put particularly strong pressure on prices.
For investors, however, unsettled market conditions like these also create opportunities. Even if markets were to enter a bear market similar to those of 2008 or the turn of the millennium, the rule of thumb still applies: you can make money with good stocks even in a bear market. Such an opportunity now appears to be opening up at Antimony Resources Corp. As a developer of antimony projects, the company benefited enormously from the hype surrounding speciality metals last year. At one point, its shares were worth CAD 1.50; today, they can be bought for just CAD 0.30. That represents a loss of four-fifths from the peak. The hype stemmed from Washington’s escalation of the trade war, particularly with its rival superpower, China. Beijing, which dominates most of these markets, responded by flexing its muscles and tightening the screws. China introduced export controls on many metals, including antimony, rare earths and tungsten, restricting exports in some cases.
Little Can Be Done Without Antimony
Yet the modern world is inconceivable without these metals. For antimony, the situation is particularly precarious given the current intense armed conflicts and wars. China controls around 60% of the global market here. Industry and investors are focusing on antimony’s sensitive applications: in addition to flame retardants and semiconductors, it is used as an alloying element (proportion: 3–5%) in lead bullets, where it is effectively irreplaceable. Antimony is added to lead to harden the very soft metal. This increased hardness gives ammunition dimensional stability when fired, as well as greater accuracy and penetration.
Antimony from Canada for the West
Antimony Resources sees itself as one of the potential winners from the geopolitical changes. There are no longer any major antimony mines in the United States today. The industry was abandoned because prices were too low to make mining economically viable. Today, that decision is proving costly. Prices are higher, while China controls the market. The US, like the European Union and Japan, is now working to establish its own raw material supply chains that are independent of China. Antimony Resources Corp.’s Bald Hill deposit in Canada could play an important role in this effort. Antimony Resources can build on exploration work carried out on the property since 2008. The historical resource estimate under the internationally recognised Canadian NI 43-101 standard indicates the deposit is relatively large, at 81,000 to 106,000 tonnes of antimony. However, this estimate is outdated, and Antimony Resources is working on an updated version.
Latest drilling confirms high antimony grades
The latest drilling results support Antimony Resources’ view. Just a few weeks ago, the company reported new assay results from drill holes in Bald Hill’s main zone, known as the Main Zone. The work forms part of the current drilling programme, which aims to extend the mineralisation in this area and close data gaps to prepare a modern resource estimate. In the Main Zone, BHW-26-18 and BHW-26-19 returned high-grade antimony values. BHW-26-19 contained, among other results, 21.45% antimony (Sb) over a length of 1.10 m and 15% Sb over 0.8 m. These intervals were contained within a mineralised zone grading 4.36% Sb over 13 m. These high grades essentially confirm the laboratory results from rock samples collected last winter, which showed an extremely high average grade of 19.5% antimony across 38 samples. Some peak values were significantly higher still.
Investors have confidence in Antimony Resources
Although Antimony Resources’ shares are currently trading near their yearly low, investor confidence remains strong. Just a few weeks ago, the Canadian company raised gross proceeds of CAD 3 million through the issuance of new shares. The shares were placed at CAD 0.30 each. As an added incentive, investors also received a warrant with an exercise price of CAD 0.50 for each share subscribed. With these fresh funds, the junior explorer is well financed to accelerate development at Bald Hill.
Conclusion
Antimony Resources offers investors the opportunity to buy in at a significantly reduced level. The share is trading 80% below its high for the year, and its market capitalisation is only around CAD 37 million. Meanwhile, the global trends toward building independent supply chains in the Western world continue, showing that deposits such as Bald Hill are needed to achieve this goal.
Conflict of interest
Pursuant to §85 of the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), we point out that Apaton Finance GmbH as well as partners, authors or employees of Apaton Finance GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “Relevant Persons”) may hold shares or other financial instruments of the aforementioned companies in the future or may bet on rising or falling prices and thus a conflict of interest may arise in the future. The Relevant Persons reserve the right to buy or sell shares or other financial instruments of the Company at any time (hereinafter each a “Transaction”). Transactions may, under certain circumstances, influence the respective price of the shares or other financial instruments of the Company.
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