Perfect replacement for lithium battery? Antimony has been invested by Bill Gates in related stocks for four consecutive years.

Recently, US energy storage company Ambri Inc announced that it has raised $144 million in financing to support the technological and commercial development of its new batteries.

Bill Gates, the company's largest shareholder, is also involved in the new round of investment.

It is reported that the new battery will be more economical than lithium-ion battery. Ambri's patented battery technology allows its battery life system to last for 4-24 hours, breaking through barriers to the cost, life and safety of lithium-ion batteries.

Through the extensive use of renewable energy, this technology reduces the cost of electricity and enables the power system to operate in a more reliable and efficient manner. At the same time, it can support energy storage projects with a capacity from 10 megawatt hours to more than 2 gigawatt hours.

Ambri said the batteries can operate safely in any climate without air conditioning. In the case of minimum degradation rate, it can be used for more than 20 years.

Antimony is a key mineral in Ambri battery chemistry in the battery design. The company will produce batteries and systems based on calcium and antimony electrodes, which will be more economical than lithium-ion batteries.

Since the disclosure of the news, domestic related stocks have risen, including ST Huayu recorded 4 consecutive boards, Hunan gold recorded 2 consecutive boards.

ST Huayu's domestic controlled antimony resources reserves reached 144300 metal tons respectively, and the overseas investment "Tarim Aluminum Gold" joint venture has controllable resource reserves of 264600 metal tons of antimony. At present, the company's controllable antimony metal accounts for 23% of the global resources.

Hunan Gold has 30, 000 tons / year refined antimony smelting production line and 32000 tons / year variety antimony oxide production line.

Antimony is the scarcest metal among the four strategic resources in China, which is mainly used in the fields of flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, semiconductors, military industry and chemical industry. According to securities firms, the increase in antimony consumption in China during the 14th five-year Plan period will mainly come from flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, polyester industry, semiconductors and military industries, with increases of 29.7%, 31%, 28.4% and 62%, respectively.

Global antimony consumption is about 130000 tons, mainly in economies such as China (47 per cent) and the US (21.5 per cent). The annual antimony consumption in developed countries is stable at about 50,000 tons. The popularization of flame retardant legislation in emerging markets and the expansion of the market scale of automobile, electric bicycle and polyester industry have led to the sustained growth of antimony consumption and become the main incremental market of antimony.

According to the agency, China's antimony consumption is expected to reach 78600 tons by 2025, 93600 tons by 2030 and 107000 tons by 2035, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent, 3.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.