Perpetua Resources, US Army and Idaho National Laboratory launch antimony pilot plant
Staff Writer | July 30, 2026
Perpetua Resources (Nasdaq: PPTA / TSX: PPTA), the U.S. Army and Idaho National Laboratory (INL), announced Thursday the opening of a new modular mineral processing plant designed to help establish an end-to-end domestic supply chain for antimony.
Antimony is designated as a critical mineral essential to U.S. national and economic security. It is a vital component in ammunition, defense systems, energy storage, and high-tech manufacturing, but faces heavy import reliance from Asian markets.
Located at the INL in Idaho Falls, the modular mineral pilot plant is designed to utilize antimony samples from Perpetua’s Stibnite Gold project in central Idaho, which aims to add antimony to the US supply chain.
The pilot plant combines the nation’s only identified domestic antimony reserve with INL’s advanced materials expertise to further advance innovation, train a skilled workforce, and strengthen the technical capabilities needed to rebuild commercial-scale domestic critical mineral production in America, Perpetua said.
The pilot plant is the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between the U.S. Army via the Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium and Perpetua to advance a fully domestic, “ground-to-round” antimony supply chain. The facility also has the potential to support future processing of additional critical minerals, the company said.
The goal is to demonstrate how to process high-quality antimony trisulfide for use in specialized military and industrial applications. Antimony is used in products ranging from defense munitions and battery technologies to solar glass and flame retardants.
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