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Antimony is seldom found as native metal
because of its strong affinity for sulphur and metallic elements such as lead,
copper and silver. The Sulphide ore stibnite (Sb2S3) is the main source of
antimony. There are over 100 antimony minerals: the oxides valentinite,
senarmontite and stibiconite.
Antimony lump. Antimony field in Russia, Chitinskaya
oblast
Antimony-bearing minerals occur in a variety of deposits: epithermal veins,
pegmatites and replacement and hot spring deposits. Deposits range in age from
Precambrian to Quarternary. Mineralogically simple antimony deposits consist
principally of stibnite, or rarely native antimony, in a siliceous gangue.
Economically exploitable antimony deposits are usually small and
discontinuous, and are found in quartzose veins which were products of intensive
igneous activity.
The veins are usually found at shallow depths and frequently contain
pyrite together with minor amounts of gold, silver or metal sulphides such as
silver or mercury. Deposits of this type are found in the world’s most
productive antimony areas in South Africa, Bolivia and China.
Complex antimony deposits consist of stibnite associated with pyrite,
arsenopyrite, cinnabar or scheelite, or of antimony sulphosalts with varying
quantities of copper, gold, silver, sulphides of these metals, and zinc.
These complex deposits are generally mined for their base metal, gold or silver
content.
Traces of antimony are also found in base metal ores and are recovered
during lead-zinc ore. In Russia, antimony is mined as a by-product of gold
production at Sarylakh and Sentochan antimony fields, and in Kyrgyzstan and
Tadjikistan as a by-product of mercury mining.
In 1993 the first estimation of antimony reserves was made in Chinskaya
oblast. Reserves were sufficient for industrial mining. At the moment more than
250 industrial mining antimony ore bodies are at the Eastern Transbaikalia.
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