United States Antimony Secures $245m Defense Contract as Trump Administration Ramps Up Strategic Mineral Push

United States Antimony Corporation (UAMY.A) announced on Tuesday that it has secured a sole-source, five-year contract worth up to $245 million from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to supply antimony metal ingots for the national defense stockpile.

The contract, one of the largest in USAC’s history, underscores a broader Trump administration drive to fortify U.S. supply chains for critical minerals amid rising geopolitical tensions and growing reliance on imports from China and other foreign suppliers.

Strategic Importance of Antimony

Antimony, a lesser-known but vital element, plays a crucial role in U.S. defense and industrial applications. It is used in munitions, military-grade alloys, batteries, and flame-retardant materials. Defense officials have repeatedly flagged the mineral as a vulnerability in America’s industrial base, noting that the United States imports the vast majority of its supply from overseas, particularly China and Russia.

The Pentagon is signaling its intent to rebuild domestic production capacity and reduce reliance on adversarial nations by tapping USAC, which operates the only two antimony smelters in North America.

“This contract is incredibly meaningful for all our employees to play such a strategic role in strengthening our nation’s defense readiness,” said USAC CEO Gary C. Evans in a statement.

The company added that it is ready to begin immediate fulfillment from its domestic facilities, with the first delivery order expected this week.

President Donald Trump has made mineral security a cornerstone of his national security and economic independence agenda. Since returning to the office, Trump has signed a series of executive orders and policy directives to secure access to critical minerals, ranging from rare earth elements to battery metals, viewing them as linchpins for defense readiness and future manufacturing competitiveness.

The antimony deal follows months of negotiations and builds on a growing partnership between USAC and the Department of Defense that accelerated in late 2024. It also dovetails with the administration’s broader push to restore domestic industrial capabilities weakened by decades of offshoring.

How the U.S. Lost Its Antimony Edge

Until the mid-20th century, the United States maintained a modest but steady domestic supply of antimony, largely sourced from mines in Idaho, Montana, and Nevada. By the 1990s, however, most of those operations had shuttered, leaving U.S. smelters dependent on foreign concentrate. At the same time, China emerged as the dominant global supplier, eventually controlling more than 80% of world output.

As domestic mining faded, the U.S. stockpile dwindled, leaving defense planners increasingly uneasy about strategic vulnerabilities. Antimony’s role in ammunition and military-grade compounds meant that disruptions in supply could have direct implications for national security.

The U.S. has faced periodic supply shocks in the past, including in the late 2010s when China imposed export restrictions, driving up costs for Western manufacturers. Those episodes underscored the risks of dependence, setting the stage for the Trump administration’s current push to reestablish domestic capacity.

The U.S. move echoes steps taken by other Western nations in recent years. The European Union has created a Critical Raw Materials Act to reduce reliance on China for rare earths and other strategic minerals. Japan and Australia have similarly partnered to diversify supplies and expand domestic processing capacity. For Washington, the USAC contract represents a concrete step toward achieving similar resilience in an area where U.S. dependence has been acute.

Industry analysts believe that the contract could also serve as a template for future government-private sector partnerships across other critical minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths.

Market Impact

News of the deal is expected to bolster investor confidence in USAC, a relatively small-cap company now tasked with playing an outsized role in U.S. defense preparedness. Beyond its immediate financial implications, the contract positions USAC at the center of America’s mineral security strategy over the next five years.

For defense planners, the move is expected to reduce a strategic vulnerability, while for USAC, it marks a transformation from a niche smelter into a critical national supplier, and the revival of an industry once thought permanently outsourced.