The U.S military is developing a small-scale pilot refinery in Idaho to domestically process a critical mineral needed for national security as efforts to break China’s hold on the critical minerals market expand.
Plans for the test refinery are being developed with Perpetua Resources Corp. and the Idaho National Laboratory. The lab will host, commission, and operate a modular plant that is expected to recover critical and defense-related materials from Perpetua’s Stibnite gold mining project in central Idaho.
“Establishing domestic production capabilities for antimony trisulfide essential for munitions and defense systems strengthens America’s supply chain resilience while advancing Idaho’s leadership in critical minerals and workforce development,” Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner said in a statement.
Perpetua—backed by JPMorgan Chase and billionaire investor John Paulson—started construction this year to reopen the Yellow Pine mine to extract gold, silver, and stibnite.
