U.S. Antimony starts Montana mining operations

United States Antimony (NYSE-A: UAMY) says it has begun exploration and bulk sampling operations on the former Stibnite Hill mine in Montana, having secured the necessary permits from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

The Stibnite Hill mine is located next to U.S. Antimony’s Thompson Falls smelter, which it uses to process third-party ore into various forms of antimony products as well as precious metals. With DEQ approvals in hand for Stibnite Hill, Thompson Falls could now process the company’s own mined material, U.S. Antimony said Friday.

Thompson Falls is one of two smelters in North America — both owned by U.S. Antimony — with a long-standing capacity to process the metal, according to the company. It can produce about 15 million lb. of antimony oxide or 5 million lb. of antimony metal per year. An expansion is currently underway to boost that production capacity.

Antimony ore has now been trucked in a number of loads off the mountain to a flotation mill in Montana for crushing and sampling prior to further review by a metallurgical chemist, U.S. Antimony said. Management is “encouraged” by the high quality of this material, the company added.

U.S. Antimony shares fell 12% to $11.08 amid a broader market selloff in U.S. trading late Friday afternoon. That cut the company’s market capitalization to about $1.5 billion.

First antimony operation

The start of mining activities at Stibnite Hill would make Montana the base of the company’s first fully integrated antimony operation. U.S. Antimony has been acquiring mineral leases and buying property in and around Stibnite Hill, which it mined more than 20 years ago, said Joe Bardswich, executive vice president and chief mining engineer.

“Once the necessary permits were obtained from the DEQ this month, we began our exploration efforts,” Bardswich said. “Those have resulted in our first four loads of raw antimony ore for our existing operations to begin processing this year.”

As a result, U.S. Antimony is “the first company in the world to be fully integrated from mining operations to finished products of antimony,” he added.

U.S. Antimony previously expected its first product to come from its Alaska operations, where it secured roughly 120 mining claims covering over 35,000 acres. Thise plans were upended when the company encountered a five-month delay in obtaining permit approvals in Alaska.

Last month, U.S. Antimony was awarded a $245 million contract by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency to supply antimony metal ingots for the national defense stockpile.