Antimony: A native element, antimony metal is extracted from stibnite and other minerals.

Antimony is used as a hardening alloy for lead, especially storage batteries and cable sheaths,
also used in bearing metal, type metal, solder, collapsible tubes and foil, sheet and pipes, and
semiconductor technology.
Stibnite: The sample in the photo contains 71.8 percent antimony and 28.2 percent sulfur. It is the
most important ore for antimony. Stibnite is used for metal antifriction alloys, metal type, shot,
batteries, and in the manufacture of fireworks. Antimony salts are used in the rubber and textile
industries, in medicine, and glassmaking.

Background
Antimony is a silvery-gray, brittle semi-metal with atomic number 51. It rarely occurs in nature
as a native element, but is found in a number of different minerals, the most important of which
is stibnite (SbS3). Antimony is often called a semi-metal, because in pure form it is not shiny and
malleable like true metals.
Antimony is not an element which most people see daily in a recognizable form. However, it is
present in many products in everyday use. Antimonys moderate price allows it to be used in a
wide variety of applications.
Antimony minerals, particularly stibnite, have been known and used since ancient times.
Because it is so soft, stibnite was used in ancient times as black eye makeup. The Roman
historian, Pliny, wrote about its use as a medicine. Artists used finely-ground stibnite in the
Middle Ages as a black pigment. Ancient scientists were interested in antimony because of
their belief that it may be useful in the process of changing common metals into gold. This field
was known as alchemy.

Name
The ancients may have occasionally produced pure antimony from its ore stibnite, and medieval
alchemists have left recipes for preparation of the pure metal. However, it was not actually
recognized as a separate element until the mid-1400s, when chemistry as a science began to take
shape. The French chemist, Nicolas Lemery, is known to have performed some of the earliest
studies on antimony.

The name antimony is derived from the Greek words anti and monos, which together mean not
alone, because it rarely occurs naturally in pure form. Its chemical symbol, Sb, is derived from
the Latin word stibium, which was the name of the most common antimony mineral, stibnite.

Sources
Antimony rarely occurs in its native metallic form in nature. It easily combines with other
elements, usually including sulfur, to form over 100 different minerals. Of these minerals, only
stibnite (SbS3) is mined commercially as a source for metallic antimony. Antimony is found in
trace (that is, very minor) amounts in silver, copper and lead ores, and it is usually economically
possible, as well as environmentally desirable, to extract the antimony from these ores when they
are smelted.
Most of the antimony mined each year comes from China, which supplies over three-quarters of
the world total. The remainder is from Russia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Bolivia, and a few other
countries. Some antimony is produced as a by-product of smelting ores of other metals, mainly
gold, copper and silver, in countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.
No mines are currently producing antimony ore in the U.S., but important amounts are yielded as
a by-product of copper and silver mining. Numerous stibnite deposits occur in Idaho, Montana
and Nevada, but most are worked out. Recycling of old lead-acid batteries (such as automobile
batteries) contributes to U.S. antimony production.

Uses
The most important use of antimony in the United States is in chemicals used to impregnate
plastics, textiles, rubber, and other materials as a flame retardant that is, a form of fireproofing.
This is required by federal law for certain childrens' clothing. Over half the annual U.S.
antimony consumption is for the manufacture of flame retardants.
A portion of U.S. consumption is in antimony alloys. Antimony is mixed (that is, alloyed) with
other metals, such as lead, to make the lead harder and stronger for use in lead-acid batteries. On
the other hand, some alloys such as Babbitt Metal (an alloy of antimony, tin, copper, and
sometimes lead) are useful as machine bearings because they are soft and slippery. Antimony is
also alloyed with tin to make pewter items such as plates, pitchers and cups, used mostly for
decoration. One use of antimony, which is declining, is to make type metal for printing
newspapers and magazines. Antimony is one of very few substances (bismuth and water are two
others) which expands when it cools and freezes. Antimony-bearing type metal thus fills every
corner of a mold used to prepare sharp type for printing. With the advent of computer printing,
this use has greatly decreased.
Antimony is also used for pigments in plastics, paints, rubber, and for a wide variety of minor
uses, including medicines, fireworks, and others. Antimony oxide is a brilliant yellow color,
accounting for much of the pigment use.

A tiny amount of highly purified antimony metal is used in the computer industry to make
semiconductors. To be useful in this application, antimony has to be 99.999% pure!

Substitutes
Antimony could be replaced by chromium, tin, zinc, and titanium compounds in the paint
industry. Cadmium, sulfur, copper, and calcium can be used to harden lead. A number of organic
compounds can be used as fire retardants. Recycling, mining, and smelter production will meet
the demand for antimony and antimony compounds for many decades to come.

Stibnite
Stibnite, sometimes called antimonite, is a sulfide mineral with the formula Sb2S3.
This soft grey material crystallizes in an orthorhombic space group. It is the most
important source for the metalloid antimony.[4] The name is from the Greek stibi
through the Latin stibium as the old name for the mineral and the element
antimony.[1][2] As an antimony sulfide, it is potentially toxic and should be handled
with care.

Structure
Stibnite has a structure similar to that of arsenic trisulfide, As2S3. The Sb(III) centers,
which are pyramidal and three-coordinate, are linked via bent two-coordinate sulfide
ions. It is grey when fresh, but can turn superficially black due to oxidation in air.

Uses
Pastes of Sb2S3 powder in fat[5] or in other materials have been used since ca. 3000 BC as eye
cosmetics in the Middle East and farther afield; in this use, Sb2S3 is called kohl. It was used to
darken the brows and lashes, or to draw a line around the perimeter of the eye.
Antimony trisulfide finds use in pyrotechnic compositions, namely in the glitter and fountain
mixtures. Needle-like crystals, "Chinese Needle", are used in glitter compositions and white
pyrotechnic stars. The "Dark Pyro" version is used in flash powders to increase their sensitivity
and sharpen their report. It is also a component of modern safety matches. It was formerly used

in flash compositions, but its use was abandoned due to toxicity and sensitivity to static
electricity.[6]
The natural sulfide of antimony, stibnite, was known and used ever since protodynastic Ancient
Egypt as a medication and a cosmetic. The Sunan Abi Dawood reports, prophet Muhammad
said: 'Among the best types of collyrium is antimony (ithmid) for it clears the vision and makes
the hair sprout.'[7]
The 17th century alchemist Eirenaeus Philalethes, also known as George Starkey, describes
stibnite in his alchemical commentary "An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle." Starkey
used stibnite as a precursor to philosophical mercury, which was itself a hypothetical precursor to
the Philosopher's stone[8]

Occurrence
Stibnite occurs in hydrothermal deposits and is associated with realgar, orpiment, cinnabar,
galena, pyrite, marcasite, arsenopyrite, cervantite, stibiconite, calcite, ankerite, barite and
chalcedony.[1]
Small deposits of stibnite are common, but large deposits are rare. It occurs in Canada, Mexico,
Peru, Japan, China, Germany, Romania, Italy, France, England, Algeria, and Kalimantan,
Borneo. In the United States it is found in Arkansas, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Alaska.
As of May 2007, the largest specimen on public display (1000 pounds) is at the American
Museum of Natural History.[9][10] The largest documented single crystals of stibnite measured
~6055 cm and originated from different locations including Japan, France and Germany.[11]

Stibnite
Stibnite in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
General Category Sulfide mineral

Chemical formula Sb2S3

Strunz classification 02.DB.05a
Crystal symmetry Orthorhombic dipyramidal
H-M symbol: (2/m 2/m 2/m)
Space group: Pbnm
Unit cell a = 11.229 , b = 11.31 ,
c = 3.8389 ; Z = 4
Identification
Color Lead-gray, tarnishing blackish or iridescent; in polished section, white
Crystal habit Massive, radiating and elongated crystals. Massive and granular
Crystal system Orthorhombic
Twinning Rare
Cleavage Perfect and easy on {010}; imperfect on {100} and {110}
Fracture Subconchoidal Tenacity Highly flexible but not elastic; slightly sectile
Mohs scale hardness 2
Luster Splendent on fresh crystals surfaces, otherwise metallic
Streak Similar to color
Diaphaneity Opaque
Specific gravity 4.63
Solubility decomposed with
hydrochloric acid Other characteristics Anisotropism: Strong References
varieties Metastibnite Earthy, reddish deposits

[1][2][3]

Major

The price of antimony CIF U. S. Ports has increased steadily from 2002 at
$1,950 per metric ton ($.88 per pound) to $15,997 per metric ton ($7.26
per pound) by the end of June 2011. It continues to go up at as high as
$.825 per week.