Antimony

Antimony is a semi-metal (metalloid) that occasionally occurs in nature as the native element — a brittle, silvery-white metallic mineral — though it is far more commonly found combined as the sulfide stibnite, its principal ore.

Identifying native antimony

Native antimony is tin-white with a bright metallic lustre, brittle, and moderately heavy, with a hardness of 3–3.5 and good cleavage. It tarnishes greyish on exposure and is usually massive or in rounded, crystalline aggregates rather than sharp crystals.

Where it is found

Native antimony occurs in hydrothermal veins, often with stibnite, arsenic and silver minerals. Notable occurrences include mines in Canada, Germany and elsewhere; stibnite is the principal antimony ore, and the U.S. Geological Survey estimated China's antimony mine production at 40,000 tonnes in 2025, the largest country figure in that table.