Antimony is considered a critical and strategically important metal and is used in a wide range of products. This study examines major antimony supply chain disruptions from 1913 to 2018 and analyses how resilience mechanisms and price feedback loops contributed to supply chain resilience. We found that the antimony diversity of supply of both mining and refining is low, but is enhanced by recycling, around 25% of global antimony supply is produced via recycling of antimony bearing metal alloys. Based on production volume, almost 70% of antimony was mined as by- or co-product in 2018, indicating a high supply risk. However, the presence of unrecovered by-products can also make the supply more elastic. Substitution is possible for some antimony applications, but for one of the main applications, flame retardants, performance of substitutes is still considered inadequate. Overall, stockpiling played a significant role in both dampening and exacerbating supply disruptions. It is recommended that the mined production and processing capabilities are diversified, stockpiles are explored as a mechanism to absorb sudden shortages, and, most importantly, recycling of antimony (trioxide) should be further improved.

锑被认为是一种重要且具有战略意义的金属，被广泛用于各种产品中。本研究考察了从 1913 年到 2018 年的重大锑供应链中断，并分析了弹性机制和价格反馈循环如何促进供应链弹性。我们发现，采矿和精炼的锑供应多样性较低，但通过回收得到增强，全球约 25% 的锑供应是通过回收含锑金属合金生产的。根据产量，2018 年近 70% 的锑作为副产品或副产品开采，表明供应风险较高。然而，未回收的副产品的存在也可以使供应更具弹性。某些锑应用可以替代，但对于主要应用之一，阻燃剂，替代品的表现仍被认为不足。总体而言，库存在抑制和加剧供应中断方面发挥了重要作用。建议矿山生产加工能力多元化，探索储备作为应对突发短缺的机制，最重要的是进一步完善锑（三氧化二）的回收利用。