Renegade Exploration uncovers high-grade antimony at Yukon project’s Myschka prospect
Renegade Exploration (ASX: RNX) has uncovered significant concentrations of critical defence metal antimony along with high-grade gold and silver mineralisation at its Yukon project in central Alaska.
The company identified a very large soil anomaly extending over 2 kilometres at the Myschka prospect, with spot high grades of 0.09% antimony, 0.26 grams per tonne gold and 65g/t silver in soil as well as a number of high-grade rock samples.
This follows the recent discovery of germanium and gallium concentrations at Renegade’s Andrew zinc-lead-silver deposit, 10 kilometres south of Myschka.
Overlooked deposit
Renegade chair Robert Kirtlan said the antimony discovery was “extraordinary” given that Myschka was historically overshadowed by Andrew.
“During the Christmas season, our neighbour Fireweed Metals announced major investments to develop critical minerals from the US Department of Defense and the Canadian Infrastructure Fund at its Macpass project, so we decided to use the quieter time […] to do a thorough review of our Yukon database.”
Rock samples at Myschka included more than 1% antimony, 1.05 grams per tonne gold and 560g/t silver; more than 1% antimony, 0.55g/t gold and 57g/t silver; and 0.85% antimony, 0.23g/t gold and 47g/t silver.
“We are planning to go to site and source historic samples for re-testing, as well as conduct field work when the season opens in the Yukon around April-May.”
Valley discovery
Myschka is located 80km south-west of Snowline Gold’s recent multi-million-ounce Valley discovery, which is associated with mid-Cretaceous intrusive rocks of the same age as those recorded at Myschka.
“Valley is a spectacular discovery, and to have a potentially similar intrusion-related gold system at Myschka is very positive,” Mr Kirtlan said.
“Our deposit is very similar to Valley, and we believe it warrants early and aggressive follow-up.”
Antimony market
Antimony is used as a hardening agent in munitions, missile guidance systems and night vision goggles and is a critical component in semiconductors and batteries.
The estimated size of the antimony market in 2024 was 96,720t, with it expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 1.5% to reach 104,170t by 2029.
The market is valued at around $160 billion and projected to grow to approximately $260b by 2032.
China’s Ministry of Commerce announced in December it would ban exports of key high-tech materials including antimony to the US following a move by the US government to impose similar controls on Chinese technology companies.