China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.

Link to the article

  • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    1 day ago

    I just posted this. Antimony is not extracted in any real significant numbers outside of Russia, South Africa, Bolvia, and China. China alone produces over 90% of it. Hunan province is the jackpot on the stuff. Bolivia is the second biggest producer at just under 5%. Russia and South Africa produce about 1-2%. That’s it. Some countries have strategic stores of it and some have a small mine here or there that is used purely for themselves because it is all they have. The US has 0 antimony mines currently. The US could waive environmental concerns and heavily subsidize a mine or two but it won’t meet the needs of the military to produce the munitions which require it, like artillery shells.

    • miz [any, any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      and beyond that, as far as I know it takes several years to get a mine up and running. so even then you are looking at a few years of the empire not producing any shells or at least producing them at insane cost markups

      • REEEEvolution@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        23 hours ago

        Propably not as much a problem as one would think. The US is aiming for China next, that will be mostly a sea and air war. No conventional artillery needed.

      • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 hours ago

        What do you need sources for exactly? Who produces what? That the US has no antimony mines of it’s own? All this information comes from disparate sources but is easily verifiable through simple searches.