OVERVIEW
Antimony (Sb) is a thin white metal with varied industrial applications. As an alloying agent it hardens and strengthens other metals, notably lead, a feature leading to its major use in lead storage batteries to give an alloy that is strong and corrosion resistant. The unusual property of its slight expansion on solidification is exploited in some casting processes, especially of type of metal to produce precise hard alloy castings with a low melting point. The oxide is widely used as a flame-retardant and pigment in textiles, paints and plastics.
In Zimbabwe, ore deposits are dominated by the antimony sulphide, stibnite which commonly occurs with gold and arsenic in low temperature hydrothermal quartz veins filling fractures and shears in arching volcanic and granitic rocks of the craton. Antimony may also be a component of more complex poly-metallic deposits.
Over 700t of exported material from an abundance of mining claims yielded 30% Sb to 50% Sb due to waste and other contributors such as quartz and oxidization in the rock material.
Full Scale Commercial Mining Projections
Mining Projections – 250t/m Concentrates Production
