Antimony is a chemical element, a metalloidsituated in the fifth column of the periodic table, with symbol Sb and atomic number51.

This metal is the fourth non-renewable resource set to disappear thanks to intensive exploitation by mankind.

Extractable antimony will disappear for good in 2022 or soon after.

Owing to a lack of necessary information, this date is only an approximation.

Link: http://environment.newscientist.com

As a hardening constituent in lead alloysit finds application in the manufacture of: printingtypes; lead-acid accumulator plates (5%), weldingalloys (approx. 80% lead, 15% antimony and 5% tin); the �€œlead shot�€� of hunting shotgun cartridges.

Constituent of lead- or tin-based anti-friction alloys.

In the form of its trioxide, Sb₂O₃, antimony serves as a flame retardant in plastics.

Semi-conductors: InSb and GaSb are used in infrared detectors and Hall effect probes (for magnetic field detection).

Antimony oxides allow the manufacture of opaque white glass.

In a pharmaceutical application, antimony-based ointments are considered to relieve pain.

Also used in the filaments of conventional incandescent lamps in iron, tantalum and titanium alloys, in processors as an alternative insulating material to silicon dioxide SiO₂.

Even if, thanks to advances in technology, we find new deposits by digging deeper and deeper into the Earth"s crust, this will afford us only a few years"reprieve and will not make a major impact on the situation.

Antimony was created when a star exploded and the Sun and the Earth were formed from the debris, over five billion years ago.

You cannot produce it artificially and there is no substitute. The Moon and the asteroids do not contain the metal in an extractable form. And just imagine the energy it would take to bring some back from Mars or Venus!

There will still be recycling but demand, which will keep growing exponentially with the development of the emerging economies, will far outstrip supply.

Its compounds have been used to cure skin and parasitic diseases.

5 countries share the world"s antimony deposits: the People"s Republic of China 81%, Russia 7.8%, South Africa 3.3%, Tajikistan 2.3% and Bolivia 1.6%.

To learn more about antimony, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony

Translation Nicholas ROSE

Don"t miss reading Point of view by Michel Walter , a programme for the end of our civilisation of wastage.