On September 1st, the 8th Antimony Forum, hosted by Asian Metal and sponsored by Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star Co. Ltd. and Guangxi Youngsun Chemicals Corporation was opened in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in Southwest China which is famous for beautiful scenery and is called the Spring City. More than 80 domestic and overseas antimony product enterprises and over 130 representatives attended the forum, where they expressed their views freely for common development. In spite of the serious COVID-19 situation, the forum was held successfully under the support of insiders from the antimony industry.

The forum formally started at 8:50 am, when Jun Liu, the General Manager from Hunan Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star Import and Export Co. Ltd., the sponsor company, delivered an opening speech. As an important subsidiary of a Fortune Global 500 company China Minmetals, Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star Co., Ltd. is a large state-owned antimony-gold company integrating mining, beneficiation, smelting and scientific research and owns annual production capacities of 600,000t of antimony ores, 30,000t of refined antimony, 40,000t of antimony products and 5t of gold. Occupying 30% and 25% of market shares for antimony products nationwide and worldwide respectively, the company usually sells its antimony products to over 50 countries and regions including Japan, USA, Europe and has already become a major antimony miner, a key producer and supplier for antimony products in the world as well as an important R&D and export base for antimony products in China. Mr. Liu pointed out that the outbreak of COVID-19 put production, logistics and communication in chaos and caused higher costs as well as more uncertainties in supply and demand, adding that the most direct results caused by high inflation around the world and the continuous increase of interest rates adopted by the Federal Reserve to curb inflation were economic stagflation, weakened purchasing power and confidence. In spite of this, Mr. Liu emphasized that insiders in the domestic antimony industry still should be confident about their own technology, the national policy adopted to ease economic pressure and the antimony products themselves. According to him, the application fields of antimony are expanding constantly and 2022 is a key year for antimony industry as antimony molten salt energy-storage battery enters a key phase for commercialization; this kind of battery will bring evolutionary changes for the whole antimony industry if it is proved to be controllable and cost-effective. In theory, there will be demand of 170,000 tons of antimony metal in China this year as 1,700t of antimony metal will be consumed to produce 1GW of energy-storage batteries as estimated by AMbri, a company invested by Bill Gates, and China’s installed PV power capacity will probably reach 100GW during the year, besides other power generation units such as wind power and geothermal energy. Mr. Liu finally expressed his appreciation to Asian Metal for reuniting insiders in Kunming, and wished the forum a complete success.

Afterwards, Chun Liu, the Chairman from Guangxi Youngsun Chemicals Corporation, the other sponsor of the forum, delivered the opening speech. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Nanning, Guangxi with registered capitals of RMB180 million (USD25.16 million), Youngsun Chemicals Corporation is a transnational company mainly producing and selling antimony trioxide and its business scope ranges from antimony ore, lead-antimony alloy, antimony ingot to gold, silver, lead and other non-ferrous metals. After the development for 25 years, the company has completed the integration of upstream and downstream industrial chains, including mining, metal smelting, R&D and production of antimony trioxide and its deep-processing products, independent export and self-owned sales terminals. Owning production bases in China and several countries in Southeast Asia, the company has formulated the "internal and external dual circulation" layout. With a total production capacity of over 20,000tpy, the company could meet demand from clients worldwide. Mr. Liu expressed his congratulations on the successful holding of the 8th Antimony Forum, and extended a warm welcome to all attendees of the forum. He noted that exploring the path of economic recovery in the post-epidemic era has become a new direction for the current development of the non-ferrous metal industry, adding that the antimony industry has ushered in a critical period to seek breakthroughs boosted by the dual driving forces of "internal circulation and external expansion". Under the background of the post-epidemic era, the antimony industry is faced with new opportunities and challenges, and it is urgent for all brother companies to work together to maintain a good ecology of the industry, strengthen industry cohesion and forge ahead.

Next, Defa Hou, the General Manager from Yunnan Muli Antimony Industry Co., Ltd, gave a welcome speech for the forum. As a joint-equity enterprise integrating mining, beneficiation, smelting and product development, Yunnan Muli Antimony is not only a well-known antimony miner, but also an important antimony resource development and utilization enterprise in China with a total production capacity of approximately 10,000t of antimony products per year. It is one of the largest antimony production and export enterprises in Yunnan province, with its production capacity, market aptitudes, producing technology, competitive strength and product quality ranking the top in the antimony industry of China. Mr. Hou expressed sincere and warm welcome to all leaders, experts, scholars, entrepreneurs and friends who attended the forum. According to him, the forum held by Asian Metal is a grand and solemn meeting within the antimony industry and will surely provide not only an excellent platform for antimony enterprises to communicate with government functional departments, relevant industry associations, experts and scholars for cooperation and technological innovation, but also an important business opportunity for antimony product enterprises to carry out technical exchanges and business cooperation with enterprises from petroleum plastics, polyester chemical, flame retardant and other industries; meanwhile, it will stimulate antimony product enterprises to learn from each other to strengthen mutual trust, raise awareness to perform duties, conduct management on production and operation and improve self-discipline so as to promote the development of the antimony industry; it will also play an active role in conducting industry-university-institute in-depth cooperation, expanding antimony application fields, making technological and innovative progresses and accordingly achieving green and high-quality development of the antimony industry.

Then, the forum formally entered a stage for reports. First, Haisheng Zhang, the General Manager from the Antimony Business Department of Hunan Nonferrous Metals Holding Group Co., Ltd. spoke on the subject of Analysis on Antimony Market in January-August and Market Outlook throughout 2022. After reviewing and analyzing the price trend of antimony from January to August 2022, Mr. Zhang pointed out that the main factors affecting domestic antimony product prices in the first half of the year were the domestic epidemic, raw material shortage, overseas smelting, the strong US dollar policy and the food and energy crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. He also shared China’s import and export data of antimony products in the first seven months of 2022 and analyzed these data in details. China exported 27,050t of antimony trioxide in the first seven months of 2022, creating a new high in the recent four years; the export volume was basically steady compared with the same period of 2021, but rose by 6,194t than the corresponding period in 2019 when the COVID-19 didn’t break out; the increase of antimony trioxide exports was mainly caused by higher exports to India, while the exports to South Korea declined by 14% YoY. China exported 8,123t of antimony ingot from January to July 2022, an increase of 1,599t or about 24% YOY; the exports to Europe rose by 134% YoY to 3,795t. After elaborating China's import data of antimony concentrate from Australia, Tajikistan, Russia, South Africa, Myanmar and Laos, Mr. Zhang gave a detailed analysis of the downstream market demand for antimony products both at home and abroad, and stated that China's macroeconomic situation was sluggish on a whole and could be simply concluded as weak domestic market but strong export market. According to him, demand of the plastics, tires, rubber, home appliances and mobile phones all declined significantly by 3%-5% YoY; the demand in glass and fiber industries basically steady YoY; only the PV industry still maintained a strong momentum of development; the consumption volume of sodium antimonate as a glass fining agent was limited; the sluggish real estate industry also brought bad influences on downstream demand for antimony products. Relative data indicated that China’s demand of antimony ingot, antimony trioxide and sodium antimonite all went up YoY to some extents, but that of ethylene glycol antimony declined by 18.6% YoY. Later, Mr. Zhang discussed on the consumption of antimony ingot and antimony trioxide in South Korea, Japan, the European Union and the United States and noted that the consumption volume in west countries generally kept steady at a high level but that in China was relatively low, adding that the decreased global demand was the biggest constraint on price increase. Mr. Zhang finally analyzed the supply from domestic and foreign mines, including GPM, NOK, Polyus Gold and Tajik Consap Antimony Resources, and concluded that the domestic market was stable, the overseas market was weak and the overall supply reduction worldwide was the largest factor that stopped prices from decreasing.

After that, Lin Chen, the Representative of Lengshuijiang Antimony Product Industry Association and Deputy General Manager of Hunan Zhenqiang Antimony Industry Co., Ltd., reported on Opening up New Paths to Strengthen Voice of World's New Antimony Capital. Mr. Chen introduced the basic overview of the Lengshuijiang Antimony Product Industry Association in detail, and said that the association aims to promote the integration of private antimony resources in the Xikuangshan area in an orderly manner, further strengthen the voice of antimony products in the international market, promote the safe, green and sustainable development of this area, and boost the construction of a demonstration zone for the transformation and development of the area. Mr. Chen pointed out that the current development opportunity of the association lies in integration of resources to create a complete industrial chain and give full play to the resource advantages of Xikuangshan area. He further analyzed the current situation faced by the Lengshuijiang Antimony Product Association and mentioned problems such as difficulties in production, shortage of raw materials, increased cost of auxiliary materials, the frequent outbreaks of COVID-19 and geopolitics. At last, Mr. Chen described the prospect of the association, proposed raw material supply opportunities and the dividends of the PV industry and emphasized the value of antimony resources as a global strategic metal cannot be ignored, adding that the voice of World Antimony Capital should be strengthened and the high-quality development of antimony industry should be promoted.

After the tea break, Junjie Liang, the Deputy Factory Director and Chief Engineer from Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star Co., Ltd. gave an excellent report on Status Quo of Antimony Smelting Development and Suggestions for High-quality Development. Mr. Liang conducted a professional analysis on the current condition of technology and research progress of antimony smelting and gave some suggestions for the development of antimony smelting technology, explaining the important stibnite and lead-antimony ore extraction technology, such as roasting volatilization, blast furnace volatilization and blast furnace oxygen-enriched volatilization. He then shared in detail the research progress of enhanced molten pool smelting of stibnite and jamesonite. In view of the existing problems in antimony smelting technology in China, Mr. Liang put forward suggestions on strengthening scientific and technological innovation, achieving energy saving and consumption reduction in antimony smelting, increasing scientific and technological investment, and realizing clean production. According to him, the oxygen-enriched blast furnace enhanced smelting is the best process for antimony smelting at present, and its production efficiency, process indicators, energy consumption, comprehensive recovery of precious metals and low-concentration sulfur dioxide flue gas desulfurization all show strong vitality (High energy-consumption, low-concentration sulfur dioxide flue gas pollution problems caused by blast furnace processing have been completely solved), so scientific and technological investment should be further increased to fully absorb the enhanced smelting technology of oxygen-enriched blast furnaces and further promote the technology move towards self-heating and energy saving so as to boost the development of antimony smelting technology.

Next, Jinfeng Fu, the Production Line General Manager from Kingfa Science and Technology Co., Ltd. gave a speech on Application of Antimony Compounds in Modified Plastics. Mr. Fu professionally analyzed the application status quo and application limitations of antimony compounds in modified plastics and the demand trend for antimony compounds in modified plastic industry and offered some suggestions. He pointed out that the compound annual growth rate of global antimony metal output is expected to be only 2.2% in the next five years, and by 2025, 2030 and 2035, the output may reach 147,000 tons, 152,000 tons and 162,000 tons respectively, adding that the global antimony market entered a supply shortage period from 2021 and the supply shortage may reach 34,200 tons per year by 2025. He analyzed the application of antimony compounds including ATO, sodium antimonite, antimony halide, antimony oxychloride and antimonic oxide in modified plastics, the influence of the size of ATO on the properties and performance of modified plastics, the aapplication limitations of ATO in transparent flame retardant products, modified plastics and so on. He also analyzed the demand trend of antimony trioxide in modified plastics, and expounded the progress of dust-free antimony trioxide, ultra-fine antimony trioxide and nano antimony trioxide, antimony trioxide surface treatment, as well as low-antimony and antimony-free technologies used in modified plastics. At last, Mr. Fu put forward suggestions on the application of antimony compounds in modified plastics, namely to develop new high value-added ATO products and to accelerate the development and promotion of new antimony compound products.

The last report on the morning, namely the Brief Discussion on Supply and Demand Situation and Prospects of Antimony Market in 2022, was made online by Xia Zhao, the General Manager from Guizhou Province Metals and Minerals I/E Co., Ltd. Ms. Zhao made a brief introduction to the main business of Jeifu Corporation, noting that Jiefu Corporation now owns purchasing capacities of 5,000-8,000t of antimony concentrate and antimonious oxide powder raw materials and 8,000-10,000t of antimony ingot raw materials per year. After disclosing that the company mainly sells Jiefu brand of antimony ingot, antimony trioxide, flame retardant masterbatch in both domestic and overseas markets with annual sales of approximately 15,000t, she briefly analyzed main factors that influenced antimony market in the first seven months of 2022 and pointed out that these factors included conflict between Russia and Ukraine, changes in the supply, the epidemic in East China, stricter national environmental protection requirements during production and smelting, China’s strong dependence on imported antimony ore and higher production costs. Then, Ms. Zhao shared the current supply of antimony ore at home and abroad, the demand in the terminal market and the status quo of the antimony trioxide masterbatch market. According to her, the antimony trioxide masterbatch is highly environmentally friendly and could replace antimony trioxide powder to reduce costs; the product owns the advantages of unique formula, relatively stable client group and others. She also mentioned main factors that prevent antimony oxide masterbatch output from increasing sharply.

At 2:00 pm, the forum continued on time. First, Qunyi Liu, the Director of Basic Mineral Strategy Research Office under Research Center for Strategy of Global Mineral Resources, CAGS reported under the subject of Analysis on China's Medium and Long-term Antimony Supply and Demand. Mr. Liu shared the status quo of the global antimony industry, the medium and long-term demand trend as well as the supply capacity of China's antimony resources and offered some suggestions, noting that the global antimony ore reserves exceed 2 million tons, while the global antimony consumption is about 120,000 tons with China and the United States accounting for about 52% and 23% respectively. After making an analogy analysis on the changes in per capita consumption in China and the United States, he further analyzed the global antimony consumption and the changes in the structure of it, the consumption of various flame retardants in various regions of the world, expecting that after 2025, with the maturity of halogen-free flame retardant technology and stricter requirements on environmental protection in China, halogen-based flame retardants will give way to halogen-free flame retardants and the domestic consumption ratio will develop towards the existing pattern in Europe and the United States. He predicted that China’s demand for antimony from flame-retardant field would be about 39,000t by 2025 and about 42,000t by 2035. With the increase of domestic cars and electric bicycles and the continuous replacement of lead-acid batteries, huge market demand will be released; however, with the arrival of peak car production, the growth rate of demand will gradually slow down by around 2030, especially against the backdrop of the development of new energy vehicle industry. Finally, Mr. Liu disclosed the antimony static storage-to-production ratio, potential resource supply capacity, secondary resource supply capacity in both China and the world as well as future changes of China's dependence on imported antimony resources, and proposed to strengthen geological exploration, standardize export channels, and encourage Chinese mineral resources developing enterprises to go global, upgrade their antimony product trading platforms, and raise the recycling volume of secondary antimony resources.

Next, Hairong Geng, the Chairman from Luoyang Hai Hui New Material Co., Ltd. reported on Technology Development of Antimony Metal Catalysts in Low Carbon Field. Ms. Geng mentioned the concept of Smiling Curve, stating that manufacturing and R&D stand in the middle and left side of the Smile Curve respectively and both refer to global competition, while marketing stands in the right side and basically refers to local competition. According to her, profits in the current manufacturing industry are low and the global manufacturing industry sees oversupply, but R&D and marketing could create high added-value. Ms. Geng then introduced the new generation of polyester ion liquid catalysts jointly developed and researched by Haihui New Materials and the School of Chemical Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology starting from 2019. Owning unique properties, the new generation of polyester ion liquid catalyst produced by the synergistic reaction of ion liquid and antimony catalyst could be used in the production of degradable plastics, such as PBAT and PBS. Progresses have been made in the application of the ion liquid, a good representative medium of green chemistry, in polymer esterification, which will be conducive to the realization of targets related to the Carbon Emission Peak and Carbon Neutrality.

Jingchun Bu, the Director & Vice President of Tibet Huayu Mining Corporation Limited made the last report, that is Tibet Huayu-To Develop New-type Sustainable Mines and Projects. Mr. Bu introduced Huayu Mining's resource reserves, production & operation and development planning in details. Focusing on mining, processing, marketing and mineral exploration of lead, zinc, antimony, silver, gold, copper and other non-ferrous metals and precious metals, Huayu Mining now owns three mines in production and two mines under construction (one each in China and overseas countries), six exploration licenses, five mining rights at home and abroad and six exploration rights and has already submitted reports to change the two rights from exploration to mining. The company's indicated resources of gold, silver, antimony, lead, zinc and copper metal reach 124t, 2,563t, 436,000t, 834,000t, 1,388,000t and 25,000t respectively. Its Kangqiaoqi Gold-Antimony Mine, which is located in Tajikistan and was put into operation on April 14th, owns gold ores of about 12.60 million tons (containing 40.2t of gold metal, equivalent to 3.19g/t), gold-antimony ores of about 10.40 million tons (containing 9.7t of gold metal and 265,000t of antimony metal, equivalent to the grade of 0.99g/t of gold and 2.73% of antimony). After sharing the resources, production capacity, mining and beneficiation capacity of Zhaxikang Lead-Zinc-Antimony Mine, Tajikistan Aluminum Kangqiaoqi Gold-Antimony Mine and Lawu Copper-Zinc Mine in Damxung County in Tibet, Mr. Bu noted that the company's advantages of antimony metal resources lie in large reserves, high grade and high production capacity after going into production. He also disclosed the resources, mining and beneficiation status quo of Huayu's expansion projects, including Keyue Lead-Zinc Mine in Longzi County, Tibet, Chagele Lead-Zinc Mine in Angren County, Tibet, Nibao Gold Mine in Pu'an County, Guizhou and Tigray Gold Mine in Ethiopia, adding that by the end of 2030, Huayu Mining is likely to achieve an annual production capacity of about 4.3 million tons in total, including about 85,000 metal tons of lead and zinc, about 20,000 metal tons of antimony, about 7 metal tons of gold and about 70 metal tons of silver. He finally stated that Huayu Mining will respond to the "Belt and Road" initiative, actively deploy the Central Asian market and the African market, strengthen communication with local enterprises, get more high-quality mining projects, and expand resource reserves relying on the Talco Gold and Ethiopian projects.

The forum came into the Discussion stage after the tea break. Haisheng Zhang, the General Manager from the Antimony Business Department of Hunan Nonferrous Metals Holding Group Co., Ltd., Chun Liu, the Chairman from Guangxi Youngsun Chemicals Corporation, Jiangen Wang, the General Manager from Yiyang City Huachang Antimony Industry Co., Ltd. and Su Gao, the Deputy General Manager from Taojiang Jiutong Antimony Industry Co., Ltd were invited as speakers to make in-depth discussion on the status quo and market outlook of antimony prices, trade frictions, the supply and demand of antimony products in the future under the current economic environment, the global supply of antimony resources and other hot topics. Mr. Liu stated that the supply of antimony products is increasingly tight in the global market currently and smelters of antimony products will be faced with great challenges, expecting that prices of antimony ores would be higher than antimony products, but prices of antimony products have touched the bottom line and would definitely stop from declining and start rebounding against the backdrop of slight increase of demand in the market in the third quarter. Mr. Wang noted that the important problem facing the antimony industry now is the supply shortage of antimony resources, adding that the weak demand in the terminal flame retardant industry is also the problem to be solved by downstream enterprises. Mr. Gao mentioned that the main reason for the current steady prices of antimony products is the tight supply in the market on the whole caused by the facts that most producers have to cut their output as a result of the supply shortage of antimony resources. Then, these speakers talked about the influence brought by the emerging of overseas smelting industry on domestic antimony prices. According to them, the implementation of favorable policies stimulated overseas smelting industry to emerge; against this backdrop, the supply of antimony products in Tajikistan, Myanmar and Amman have increased substantially so far this year with annual exports reaching approximately 18,000t, which to some extent made China's exports of antimony products decline; nevertheless, China still has absolute advantages in production technology and resources. Finally, these speakers exchanged views on the ways for Chinese antimony product enterprises to respond to the changes in the global supply pattern of antimony resources depending on their advantages in antimony resources and production. They concluded that China's current dominant advantages are gradually decreasing, and its core competitiveness is weakening, adding that domestic antimony product enterprises should further improve the recovery rate of antimony products, look at problems dynamically, give full play to the advantages of domestic antimony resources, and at the same time further increase the added-value of antimony products.

At 6 p.m., the long-awaited reciprocal dinner officially began with Jun Liu, the General Manager from Hunan Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star Import and Export Co. Ltd., giving an opening speech for the dinner. Mr. Liu Jun expressed his happiness to participate in this forum together with colleagues and experts in the antimony industry, extended his warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to all colleagues who attended the dinner, showed his appreciation to Asian Metal for the meticulous arrangement and invited everyone to raise glasses in a toast to the successful conclusion of the forum. The dinner was in a harmonious and lively atmosphere and Asian Metal carefully arranged the Dai dance, peacock dance and other dances with rich local ethnic characteristics in Yunnan. We believe that through the in-depth and candid exchanges of the participants, this forum will surely make more consensus for the prosperity and development of the antimony industry, strengthen the cohesion of the industry and contribute more wisdom! We hope everything will be better in this autumn and look forward to seeing you next year!