The United States Antimony Corporation (USAC) announced on Tuesday (September 23) that they have signed an exclusive five-year contract with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) of the Department of Defense, totaling up to 245 million U.S. dollars. This contract is for the supply of antimony metal ingots to supplement the National Defense Stockpile.
The “Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity” (IDIQ) contract, which was negotiated over several months, was officially signed this week. USAC currently owns the only two operational antimony smelters in North America, capable of immediately producing and delivering products that meet military specifications. The first deliveries under the contract will commence this week.
The company is also expediting international procurement and advancing mining development in Alaska and Montana to strengthen the domestic supply chain.
Gary C. Evans, Chairman and CEO of the company, emphasized that this contract is “significant” for the company and all employees. He highlighted that the company’s team possesses decades of accumulated expertise and technical capability, making them the only enterprise in the U.S. that can independently handle antimony throughout the entire supply chain.
Evans pointed out that the company’s total revenue for the full year of 2024 was only 14.9 million U.S. dollars, demonstrating a significant gap compared to the contract value, which illustrates the high level of trust the U.S. Department of Defense has in USAC’s technology and production capacity.
Encouraged by this news, USAC’s stock price experienced significant fluctuations on the day of the announcement. It briefly dropped to 6.39 U.S. dollars during trading but quickly surged to 8.15 U.S. dollars, ultimately closing up by approximately 12.6%. The trading volume approached 29 million shares, indicating a strong market response to this major development.
Antimony is widely used in ammunition primers, military alloys, batteries, and flame retardant materials, and has long been considered a weak link in the U.S. supply chain by the Department of Defense. With China historically producing over half of the global output for many years, domestic production capacity in the U.S. is limited, leading to heavy reliance on imports. In the context of heightened geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, reducing dependence on China has become a strategic imperative for the U.S.
To strengthen the domestic supply chain, the Trump administration has recently introduced several measures, including streamlining mineral development approvals, providing financial support for critical mining and battery industries, and increasing investments in rare earths and other strategic materials to reduce external dependencies.