Here's something most people have never heard of: antimony. It's not flashy like lithium or sexy like rare earths, but it turns out this obscure silvery metal is absolutely essential for making bullets, night-vision equipment, and defense systems. And right now, Europe has a serious antimony problem.

The US has made critical mineral security a national priority, which is fundamentally reshaping transatlantic relations and exposing just how dependent Europe remains on foreign suppliers. The Trump administration has argued that Greenland's natural resources, combined with its strategic Arctic location, make the Danish territory vital to American economic interests. Trump's fixation on Greenland fits into a broader US strategy to break free from Chinese-dominated rare earth elements and critical mineral supply chains.

For the European Union, this shift creates a double headache. First, it underscores the bloc's urgent need to strengthen defense capabilities after decades of leaning on Washington for security. Second, it highlights Europe's dangerous vulnerability to disruptions in rare earth elements and critical minerals that power everything from clean energy infrastructure to semiconductors and defense manufacturing.

"The US and the EU are competing with China to access Greenland's rare earths as they attempt to diversify away from Beijing's dominance of the global critical minerals supply chain," Patrick Schröder, Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House, wrote in October. "Greenland is home to largely untapped deposits of critical minerals."

These warnings underscore Europe's deepening supply chain crisis, and antimony sits right at the center of it.

The Scope of Europe's Supply Chain Problem

The World Economic Forum, hosting its annual gathering in Davos this week, has sounded alarms about EU supply chain vulnerabilities. China produces roughly 95% of the world's rare-earth oxides and supplies 70% of Europe's imports. That's not a supply chain—that's a single point of failure.

"The EU has virtually no domestic rare-earth production," Hamed Ghiaie, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at ESCP Business School, and Filippo Gorelli, Analyst at Nexans, wrote for WEF in October. "It sources 98% of its rare-earth magnet demand from Chinese suppliers. Similar dependencies exist for magnesium, gallium, and germanium — metals vital for semiconductors and defense technologies."

Greenland has emerged as a potential game-changer for European industries. Without secure access to rare earth elements and critical minerals, Europe risks falling dangerously behind in AI development, defense manufacturing, and its net-zero transition goals.

In a friendlier political climate, Europe and the US might have worked together more effectively on rare earth supply chains. Instead, relations have deteriorated. Trump posted an image on social media showing himself planting a US flag in the Arctic territory. He threatened 10% tariffs on European countries that don't bend to his demands. Europe has discussed retaliation but hasn't announced formal policy measures yet.

Why Antimony Matters for Defense

Antimony has become the latest flashpoint in the global scramble for critical minerals. This metalloid plays an oversized role in defense applications despite its relative obscurity. Greenland holds high-grade antimony deposits, with Perth-based GreenX Metals (GRX) reporting significant mineralization in 2024 at its Eleonore North project.

Antimony gets used in flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, alloys, and defense technologies. But its defense applications are what make it strategically critical: armor-piercing ammunition, night-vision equipment, and hardened lead alloys that can't easily be substituted.

"Antimony is one of those raw materials that historically have been completely unknown to the public," CEO of United States Antimony Corp., Gary C. Evans, said in the company's third-quarter 2025 earnings call. "For the military and industrial sectors, this mineral is absolutely essential. Antimony alloys play a significant role in making ammunition production that is extremely difficult to replace."

The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act has designated antimony as both critical and strategic. Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia have all added it to their critical minerals lists. The International Institute for Strategic Studies has specifically highlighted antimony's role in European defense resilience.

China Turns Antimony Into a Geopolitical Weapon

Currently, China, Russia, and Tajikistan control about 90% of global antimony mine production. That concentration of supply creates obvious vulnerabilities.

With 58% of global antimony production in 2023, China has wielded antimony as a strategic weapon in its trade confrontation with Washington. In December 2024, Beijing halted exports to the US of antimony, gallium, germanium, and other critical minerals, while requiring stricter scrutiny of graphite shipments.

China slashed its 2025 antimony oxide export quota by over 80%—from 34,200 tons in 2024 down to just 6,000 tons. China did suspend its export ban on antimony, gallium, and germanium to the US until November 2026, but only after a meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping. The temporary reprieve doesn't change the underlying dynamic.

China halted antimony shipments to the EU in October 2024, despite initial expectations that the restrictions would only target the US. European antimony prices exploded 437% between 2023 and 2025, creating acute shortages for munitions production, metal hardening, and infrared optics manufacturing.

Europe's Limited Domestic Production

Europe has only a handful of antimony miners capable of meeting demand, which is projected to grow from $0.32 billion in 2024 to $0.65 billion by 2035, according to Market Research Future. Germany, Europe's largest economy, represents the biggest antimony market due to its industrial base and high demand for flame retardants.

Small-cap mining companies have stepped up efforts to increase supplies in response to the crisis.

Military Metals Corp. (MILIF) is developing Slovakia's Trojarová project, with 2026 drilling campaigns targeting high-grade antimony-gold resources. DPM (ASX: DPM) acquired Adriatic Metals and has been producing 24,000 metric tons of antimony concentrates annually since 2023, supporting EU self-sufficiency efforts under the Critical Raw Materials Act.

Tajikistan, the world's second-largest producer, could potentially meet some European demand. Laos and Cambodia began exporting 10 to 15 metric tons per month to Europe in 2025. However, these two Southeast Asian suppliers face significant political instability, making them unreliable as long-term partners.

Europe Struggles While the US Accelerates

The EU's push to secure critical minerals has encountered regulatory hurdles, environmental constraints, and painfully slow permitting processes. Meanwhile, the US has dramatically accelerated its own strategy.

"The US has done a complete 180 in the last 12 months, and again made mining a priority area for our national development," David Copley, the White House's minerals and supply chain coordinator, said at a mining event on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia. "Minerals are the elemental building blocks of everything we need to re-industrialize our country. Over the next few years, the US government will deploy hundreds of billions of dollars of capital into the mining sector between debt and equity."

On Thursday, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced legislation to create a $2.5 billion stockpile of critical minerals designed to encourage domestic mining and refining. The US has already bought stakes in Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) and MP Materials Corp. (MP) last year, signaling serious commitment to building domestic supply chains.

"Geopolitical factors are expected to remain a key driver of the antimony market through 2026," Xiaoying Du and Nico Zhang wrote for Fastmarkets in their market outlook report. "Export controls, environmental regulations, defense priorities and trade relationships are expected to play decisive roles in determining how antimony moves through the global supply chain."

Europe finds itself caught between escalating defense needs, fractured relationships with traditional allies, and overwhelming dependence on adversarial suppliers for materials it absolutely cannot do without. The antimony shortage isn't just an economic inconvenience—it's a fundamental strategic vulnerability that threatens Europe's ability to defend itself and maintain industrial competitiveness. And unlike some supply chain problems that can be fixed with money and time, this one requires geopolitical solutions that currently seem nowhere in sight.