EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration has helped launch the first-ever U.S. mine for a critical mineral largely dominated by China, which controls about half of global production, Fox News Digital has learned.
The Idaho operation will extract and smelt antimony - a metalloid that is key to the U.S. defense and technology sectors - and reduce reliance on malign actors like the CCP - from which about half the world's stock is currently produced.
Antimony has a myriad of national security uses - including in military tools like night-vision goggles, explosives, flame-retardants, tracers, lasers, nuclear weapons production, military clothing and ammunition.
It also plays a role in the bloodless AI arms race, as a component in semiconductors and infrared technology, as well as its use increasing the hardness of alloys like lead and copper.
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While not technically considered a rare earth element because of its placement on the periodic table, antimony is considered critical and less common than other elements.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum played a leading role in the groundbreaking effort to boost U.S. energy dominance and self-reliance in terms of critical minerals and natural resources.
The antimony stibnite mine will be used to mine for gold as well, Fox News Digital has learned.
The mine's opening is another example of a critical global supply chain shifting stateside, as Burgum and other officials aim to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers for national security and economic stability.
The National Energy Dominance Council, an executive branch advisory group founded in February by executive order and led by Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was a key player in the opening of the mine.
Burgum issued the mine's 404 permit - which governs dredging and discharge into American waters -- on Thursday to Boise-based Perpetua Resources.
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Perpetua President Jon Cherry called the achievement the culmination of eight years of study, refinement and "lots of hard work."
"We are immensely proud to achieve this milestone. It's time to move forward and take the Stibnite Gold Project into a new and exciting phase of development," Cherry said in a statement.
"We believe this [Trump] administration's commitment to boosting efficiency without compromising rigorous environmental standards can have a transformational impact on American mining," he added.
The project will also create 550 jobs and, on the gold front, is primed to produce more than 400,000 ounces of the precious metal annually over the next four years.
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The antimony stores therein are estimated at 148 million pounds and are the only identified such reserve in the U.S. - and the largest outside China.
It is expected to cut foreign reliance on that critical mineral by one-third.
