SUMMARY
The peace-time consumption of antimony is limited rather by the relatively restricted uses to which antimony is put than by any lack of potential supply. As a consequence, steady production has been maintained only from those districts in which working expenses are low and markets readily available, or in which the deposits contain other metals of value. Modern warfare, however, creates a special use for antimony—in the manufacture of shrapnel—which requires many times the amount of antimony necessary for ordinary peace uses. In the case of each of the three important wars of the last twenty years, the Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War and the Great War, the curves of antimony prices and production have risen sharply in accordance with the demand, and have fallen as rapidly after the need for munitions was past.
China has for long been the most important source of antimony and will doubtless retain that position for many years. Steady though less important production has been maintained in France, Austria-Hungary and Mexico, while several other countries produced important amounts as a result of the largely increased demands of the war. Chief among these were Bolivia, Algeria, and Australia.
England dominated the antimony market prior to 1914 through her large smelting interest, trade agreements in the Orient, and selling agencies in America—the principal consuming country. Since that time, however, Chinese interests have become independent, and Japan has become of importance in the antimony smelting and trading field.
The United States possesses limited antimony resources which can be exploited only at very high prices, and is dependent almost entirely upon outside sources of supply. In the past this supply has been drawn largely from England, but more recently from the Orient and Mexico.
Germany has insignificant antimony resources of her own, and depended for her supply during the war upon the Hungarian deposits, which were apparently inadequate to meet the demands. Her interests prior to the war were chiefly those of the smelter and middleman, and did not extend very largely to foreign deposits.
The United States, France, Germany and Great Britain normally consume 85 per cent. of the antimony of the world, and of these France alone is independent of foreign sources of supply.
The antimony trade of the world is largely controlled by a few companies, of which the most important are: Cookson’s (British), Wah Chang Co. (Chinese), and Société de La Lucette (French). The Mitsui Co. (Japanese), largely through shipping interests, has a considerable share in the Chinese and Japanese antimony trade.