Alaska’s New Mining Rush Chases Something More Coveted Than Gold
Miners are racing to extract antimony, an obscure element used by defense companies, which China cut off as retaliation in the trade war
Rod Blakestad searches for antimony near Fairbanks, Alaska.
Updated Nov. 9, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
ESTER, Alaska—At a mining site here, Rod Blakestad cracked open a shiny rock with his pick. He found quartz, a sign that the rock may contain gold.
But Blakestad, a veteran gold hunter, tossed the rock aside. He and his team of geologists were searching for something even more sought-after: antimony, an obscure element widely used in the defense industry that is now at the center of the bitter U.S.-China trade fight.
“If we were looking for gold, we’d be high-fiving,” he said.
Until recently, antimony, which is often found in gold mines, was treated as detritus by gold miners.
But that began changing last year, when China put in place heavy restrictions on antimony exports, including banning all shipments to the U.S. in December, in retaliation for restrictions Washington put on the export of American technology products to China.
That is squeezing defense companies, which use antimony to harden bullets and strengthen armor-penetrating projectiles. Antimony prices have quadrupled from two years ago and supplies are now scarce, just as defense companies need to replenish stockpiles of armaments exhausted by the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
Last month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Trump hammered out a truce in a trade war that has seen the two sides trade blows. In particular, China has choked off the supply of many critical minerals—some of which are used to make products such as cars, drones and jet engines—in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and U.S. restrictions on certain exports to China.
Around 60% of the world’s antimony is mined in China, with most of the rest coming from Russia, Tajikistan and Myanmar.
Under the truce, the White House said antimony shipments would resume. Beijing confirmed this on Sunday, saying it would relax its absolute ban on shipments to the U.S. for one year, though it has kept in place a clause restricting military end-uses. Global antimony prices have remained elevated through last week.
Now, antimony is emerging as an important test case of whether the U.S. can restore supply chains devastated by decades of Chinese dominance.
The U.S. hasn’t been a significant miner of antimony for many years. Now, companies are dusting off sites in Alaska and Idaho that last produced antimony during the 20th century. The Defense Department is pouring money into jump-starting projects. In September, it announced $43 million in funding to accelerate production at an Alaska antimony project.
Blakestad’s employer, United States Antimony, operates an antimony smelter in the U.S. In September, the government granted it a $245 million contract to supply antimony ingots to the national defense stockpile.
But first, U.S. Antimony needs to get hold of the ore. Earlier this year, Chinese authorities intercepted one of the company’s antimony shipments while it was transiting through a Chinese port on the way from Australia, holding it for months before releasing it.
Chinese buyers, who are searching for ore after production dwindled at a giant mine in China, have been scooping up antimony around the world. Meanwhile, last year, U.S. Antimony stopped mining the material at its Mexico holdings, in part because cartels made operating there too dangerous.
Alaska calling
Now, U.S. Antimony is making a big push to mine domestically, and it is turning to the vast potential of Alaska.
The company acquired mineral leases around Fairbanks, guided by old geological bulletins indicating the presence of antimony at gold mines.
Blakestad, who has hunted for gold as far as Mali and Ghana—and is famed for his role in the discovery of one of the U.S.’s largest gold mines—is leading the company’s Alaska exploration efforts.
At the Mohawk mine, a disused site that still features a crumbling wooden gold-processing mill, Blakestad’s team follow century-old collapsed mining tunnels that snake through the soil—signs that, decades ago, miners found seams of gold that might contain antimony. They look for hardy alder trees, which indicate an area that had been dug up for mining years ago. When they find a promising area, they dig new trenches and collect samples.
“We’re looking for what they left behind,” said Blakestad.
Mines
Prospects
Mineral occurrences
Chukchi Sea
Russia
Alaska (U.S.)
Canada
Fairbanks
Bering Sea
Anchorage
Juneau
Gulf of Alaska
200 miles
200 km
Down in Montana, U.S. Antimony is expanding its smelter and is restarting mining operations that it shut down in the 1980s because it couldn’t compete with rock-bottom Chinese prices.
“We know we can fix this problem,” said Chief Executive Gary Evans, who says the recent U.S.-China trade truce hasn’t changed the company’s plans to forge ahead with the Alaska project.
Other companies are also digging. At its site, called Treasure Creek, near Fairbanks, Australian company Felix Gold has found high-grade surface deposits of antimony that gleam in the sunlight. The company says it is ready to start mining later this year if the permits come through. Felix Gold is also drilling hundreds of feet underground to map out the area’s antimony deposits and may seek to dig a deeper mine.
“The U.S. is going to have to secure its own supply chains,” said Joe Webb, the company’s executive director. “We’re treasure hunters so we always hope to find this good stuff.”
Fairbanks’s antimony projects benefit from the fact that they aren’t in remote areas. However, the proximity to one of Alaska’s largest cities means dealing with residents unhappy with the proposed mines.
Local dog-sled racers, known as mushers, complain that Felix Gold obstructed access to the White Mountains, where they train for the annual 1,000-mile Iditarod race. There was no other way to access the park without going through private property, say Jeff and KattiJo Deeter, competitive racers who run a sledding company that offers tourists a chance to get pulled by a team of sled dogs.
In October, Felix Gold built a parallel trail for recreational users, restoring access. KattiJo said she appreciated the new path, but worried other problems would crop up as mining activity increases. “We’re just a little bit concerned that this is a conversation that we’ll continue to have…every year,” she said.
Near the Treasure Creek project are yurts from which tourists view the Northern Lights. However, a bright light that illuminates Felix Gold’s site now sometimes pierces the otherwise starlit night sky.
“People from all over the world travel here to see the Northern Lights,” said Josh Hube, manager of 1st Alaska Tours, which brings visitors to the yurts. “Guests don’t want to see light pollution.”
Fearing that the situation will worsen as the project expands, Hube is preparing to set up a more distant site for Northern Lights viewings, which he estimates will cost around $200,000. “It’s going to take four to five years to recoup what we put into it, to get back in the black,” he said.
At a recent meeting of Save Our Domes, a local environmental group, a member described the proposed mines as “equivalent to a huge festering boil on the face of a family member.” Some residents say the strategic nature of the antimony rush makes the projects harder to fight than gold.
Felix Gold says it is seeking to minimize disruption from the project, which is why the company built an alternative path for dog sledders to White Mountain. The company said it is open to adjusting when it turns on its drill light at night.
Evans, U.S. Antimony’s CEO, says the company is committed to being a good neighbor, citing cleanup work it has done around the area where old cars had been dumped.
Write to Jon Emont at jonathan.emont@wsj.com
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Appeared in the November 10, 2025, print edition as 'Hunt for Antimony Adds New Element To Trade Skirmish'.