Maritime Industry Briefing: Critical Minerals Supply Chain in Focus as Antimony Deficit Draws Washington's Attention

## Critical Minerals Briefing: Antimony Supply Gap Raises Strategic Concerns The United States faces a growing deficit in antimony supply — a critical mineral with significant applications across defence, shipbuilding, and marine technology sectors — and one junior mining company is positioning itself as part of the domestic solution. NevGold Corp. (TSXV: NAU | OTCQX: NAUFF | Frankfurt: 5E50) has announced it is advancing its Nevada brownfield project with a 20,000-metre drill programme currently underway, targeting a maiden antimony-gold resource estimate in the second quarter of this year, according to a company release issued via PR Newswire. ### Why Antimony Matters to Maritime and Defence Industries Antimony is a metalloid used in a range of industrial and defence applications, including flame retardants for shipboard materials, lead-acid batteries used in marine vessels, ammunition, and infrared sensors. The United States currently imports the vast majority of its antimony supply, with China accounting for the dominant share of global production — a dependency that has drawn increasing scrutiny from policymakers in Washington amid ongoing trade tensions and supply chain resilience reviews. The strategic importance of antimony has been underscored by its inclusion on the US Critical Minerals List, and recent export restrictions imposed by Beijing on the material have accelerated efforts to identify and develop domestic sources. ### NevGold's Position in a Constrained Market With a 'freshly funded treasury' and active drilling operations, NevGold describes itself as 'near the front of a very short line' of domestic producers capable of contributing to US antimony supply in the near term. The company's Nevada project benefits from existing brownfield infrastructure, which the company says reduces development timelines compared to greenfield alternatives. While NevGold is a junior exploration-stage company and commercial production remains subject to resource confirmation and permitting, the project reflects a broader trend of increased investment in domestic critical mineral supply chains — a priority that spans both the current and previous US administrations. ### Broader Industry Context The antimony supply issue is one facet of a wider critical minerals challenge facing Western nations. For the maritime sector specifically, supply chain vulnerabilities in materials used in shipbuilding, naval construction, and vessel systems have become a recurring theme in industry and government risk assessments. Efforts to reshore or 'friend-shore' production of key inputs are expected to intensify through 2025 and beyond. *Source: PR Newswire / NevGold Corp.*