Australia taps antimony miners ahead of Albanese-Trump meeting

Resolution Minerals (ASX: RML) and Nova Minerals (ASX: NVA) are amongst the miners requested to brief Australian Ambassador to the US Dr Kevin Rudd ahead of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meeting with US President Donald Trump.

The meeting between Prime Minister Albanese and President Trump is scheduled to take place in Washington DC on October 20 with critical minerals and strategic cooperation set to be key points of discussion.

The Ambassador has requested Resolution to provide an update on its Horse Heaven gold-antimony-tungsten project in Idaho, including its size, mineral resource value and prospective expansion plan.

Horse Heaven is well positioned to benefit from a strategic partnership between Australia and the US that supports domestic supply chains as the US remains heavily reliant on imported antimony, a metal used to harden lead for bullets and projectiles.

The project covers 12,580ac of exploration ground, is home to historic antimony, tungsten and gold mines and contains several high-priority target areas including Golden Gate and Antimony Ridge.

Horse Heaven is adjacent to Perpetua Resources’ Stibnite gold and antimony project which recently received about $122m [US$80m] in funding from the US Department of Defense and secured development approval under the FAST-41 approvals fast-track program.

Resolution Minerals chief executive Craig Lindsay says the company appreciates the opportunity to brief the Ambassador.

“Horse Heaven is a significant Australian-led project in the US, with historical and potential future production of gold, antimony and tungsten, which are all critical to industrial and defence applications,” he said.

“The briefing reflects the constructive cooperation between Australia and the US on the development of secure, transparent critical mineral supply chains.

“We look forward to contributing to this dialogue and providing an update on our progress of our work in Idaho.”

Resolution continues to advance exploration and development programs at Horse Heaven, with the aim of positioning the company as a key participant in the US’ aim to secure onshore supply of critical minerals.

Nova Minerals will also provide a briefing on its Estelle gold and antimony project in Alaska, which is targeting military-spec antimony production in FY27.

The project was recently awarded about $66m [US$43.4m] from the US Department of War to support the accelerated development of a fully integrated US antimony supply chain.

The briefing request follows a site visit by the Australian Consular-General Tanya Bennett in August this year which recognised the Estelle project as a leading example of the deepening Australia-US collaboration in critical minerals and strategic resource development.

Nova Minerals chief executive Christopher Gerteisen says the invitation is a testament to the project’s strategic importance.

“With antimony recognised as a critical mineral and our gold resources adding significant value, Nova is well-positioned to contribute to both US and Australian critical minerals strategies,” he said.

Nova has secured a land use permit for a proposed antimony refinery at Port MacKenzie, positioning the company as a first mover in establishing a domestic antimony production hub.

As Australia seeks to leverage its strategic importance as a key supplier, the Australian critical minerals task force is developing a plan for the proposed $1.2b critical minerals strategic reserve that focuses on sales of future production and limits the need for a physical stockpile, as reported by Reuters.

“We’ve got vast resources of the critical minerals that the world is going to need to decarbonise, to build data centres, to process AI,” Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell told the ABC.

“We need to have a broad range of customers, firstly to provide us with the capital to extract the products, but secondly, to ensure that we’ve got guaranteed markets to sell these critical minerals,” he said.

“We’ve been talking to the Europeans … the Japanese, the Koreans and, of course, we’re talking with the Americans.”

The critical minerals task force aims to finalise policy recommendations for the strategic reserve by the end of this year.