Objective Antimony metal is an important strategic resource. In recent years, with the global acceleration of the “dual carbon” goals and the continuous intensification of geopolitical conflicts, antimony has attracted much attention from governments and markets around the world due to its new energy and military attributes. Understanding the global supply and demand trends of antimony resources under the background of “dual carbon” is of great significance for the rational planning and development of antimony resources in China.

Methods This paper systematically analyzes the future demand and supply trend of global antimony resources by collecting the data of global antimony resource reserves, production and demand.

Results The study found that under the background of "dual carbon", the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry has led to a rapid increase in the demand for antimony for photovoltaic glass, and the demand for antimony resources in the photovoltaic field has become a new growth point. At the same time, due to environmental protection and performance factors, antimony demand may decline in flame retardants, lead-acid batteries and other traditional main antimony downstream application areas. And the consumption momentum of antomony is shifting from flame retardants to photovoltaic glass. In terms of supply, the abundance of antimony in the earth's crust determines the high scarcity of antimony resources. The distribution of antimony resources is zoned and concentrated, which mainly concentrates in China (29.48%), Russia (16.12%), Bolivia (14.28%) and Kyrgyzstan (11.98%). Affected by multiple factors such as the depletion of antimony mine resources, safety and environmental protection issues, and the strengthening of strict control of antimony resources in various countries, the global supply of antimony resources continues to decline. Besides, the supply of recycled antimony is limited due to the difficulty of antimony recycling in the main application fields. The metallurgical technology of antimony resources is developing in the direction of green and low-carbon.

Conclusions In the long term, the global supply of antimony resources will continue to shrink, and the gap between supply and demand will continue to expand. In response to the above situation, the research proposes to: first, increase domestic exploration and development of antimony resources and strengthen international cooperation on antimony resources; second, accelerate the research on antimony resource beneficiation and smelting technologies and promote the utilization of recycled antimony resources; third, strengthen self-discipline in the antimony resources industry to promote its healthy development.