The US Army has announced the development of a small, transportable refinery fleet to produce critical minerals used in ammunition and weapon systems manufacturing.
The effort is being led with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Perpetua Resources in Donnelly, Idaho, whose Stibnite Gold Project hosts the nation’s only identified antimony reserve.
Antimony is a bluish-silvery mineral commonly used in alloys for durability. It is a key component in materials for armor-piercing shells, offering higher penetration and increased velocity, but has not been produced domestically since the 1960s.
Army officials said that the metalloid will be the first focus, with a pilot plant designed by Canadian company Westpro Machinery able to fit into four shipping containers and produce 7 to 9 metric tons (15,432 to 19,842 pounds) of military-grade antimony trisulfide each year.
“Without antimony trisulfide, you can’t make primers. And without primers, you can’t make bullets,” Mark Mezger, senior technology advisor for the US Army Armaments Center, told Reuters.
The military has allocated $30 million to develop the refinery concept, with six months of testing planned. Full-scale operation could follow if the tests are successful.
Throughout the work, INL scientists will verify processing methods with military standards and ensure that capabilities are “cleaner and more efficient.”
If approved for deployment, the modular mineral processors are expected to increase output during a conflict, using ore from Stibnite or other US projects.
Expansion to Other Critical Minerals
The mobile refinery initiative is part of the Pentagon’s broader strategy under the Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium to create a fully domestic “ground-to-round” supply chain, reducing reliance on foreign suppliers, particularly China.
Perpetua has already received up to $22.4 million in federal support for associated antimony processing and expects Stibnite to supply up to 35 percent of US demand in its early years.
Officials said similar small-scale refineries could later be developed for tungsten, rare earths, and boron, which the US government also deems critical.
