Inside the antimony smelting process on the Dong Van Karst Plateau

Antimony is a precious metal widely used in high-tech industries and military applications in developed industrial countries around the world. Global demand for antimony in recent years and in the time ahead remains very high, especially from countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia, India, and China, while supply has become increasingly constrained.

Tuyen Quang is one of the localities with antimony deposits that are currently being mined and deeply processed to meet domestic demand and for export. Let’s visit the antimony mine and smelting facility of Ha Giang Mechanical and Mineral Joint Stock Company in Mau Due Commune on the Dong Van Karst Plateau to gain insight into how this precious metal is produced.

The Mau Due antimony mine in Mau Due Commune has been in operation for decades.

Workers search for and sort ore for the refining process.

Producing refined antimony metal requires a complex and multi-stage production process.

Workers operate smelting furnaces at temperatures reaching thousands of degrees Celsius.

The furnaces are kept burning continuously, 24 hours a day, with workers rotating in shifts.

Workers remain on duty at all times to ensure a constant supply of fuel for the furnaces.

Through successive stages, antimony passes through the final refining furnace before being extracted.

Workers use iron ladles to pour molten antimony into molds.

Solid antimony metal blocks are the result of an intensive and sophisticated process of mining and deep processing.

Each year, hundreds of tons of antimony metal from Tuyen Quang are exported to Japan, Germany, China, the United States, and other countries.

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