Perpetua Resources (NASDAQ: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA) is expected to be included in the Russell 2000 Index after the US market opens on Monday, June 28, which is the most widely cited US emerging company One of the performance benchmarks.

Until February of this year, the company was still known as Midas Gold and moved its headquarters from Vancouver to Boise, Idaho, where it restored the historic brownfield of its Stibnite Gold project.

The results of an independent feasibility study released last year predict that the project will become one of the largest and highest grade open-pit gold mines in the United States, with more than 4 million ounces of gold reserves — and the only primary antimony producer in the United States. An important and strategic mineral.

There are currently no domestic sources of antimony, and 90% of the world's supply is controlled by China, Russia, and Tajikistan. This argument is becoming increasingly untenable when it comes to sourcing minerals that are vital to the North American supply chain.

Perpetua Resources Vice President of External Affairs Mckinsey Lyon told MINING.COM: "[Antimony] deserves more praise-in the end it is an unsung hero."

"Now it is vital in energy technology, whether it is glass clarification components in solar panels, or metal strengthening components in wind turbines and water turbine bearings-it is also used in high-capacity batteries."

"This is the missing piece of the renewable grid. You must be able to store this energy, and the technology with antimony at its core is the liquid metal battery," she said.

"The really great economic leap has to do with large-capacity storage devices that are combined with the grid to provide off-peak power storage"

Perpetua Resources has signed an agreement with the U.S. Antimony Industry to explore the potential for processing antimony from antimony ore in U.S. antimony facilities.  

The U.S. antimony industry has received US$510,500 in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and has the only primary antimony processing facility in North America. The antimony gold project is expected to become the only source of antimony ore in the United States, because antimony is the main ore of antimony.

According to Perpetua's January 2021 FS, the total proven and probable mineral reserves of the project are 104.6 million metric tons (Mt), and the gold grade is 1.43 g/t. Mineral reserves include 14.2 tons of high antimony ore, with an antimony grade of 0.42%. The average annual metal production for the first four years of operation is expected to be approximately 463,000 troy ounces of gold and 18.4 million pounds of antimony per year.

Hallgarten & Company released a white paper positioning antimony as "the new metal in mass storage."

"Most of the discussions in mainstream media are about battery options that extend the life of mobile phones or laptops and other PDAs, or about hybrid or electric vehicles. However, the truly huge economic leap is related to mass storage devices. The equipment is combined with the energy grid to provide off-peak power storage," the report reads.

Antimony mined from Perpetua's Stibnite Gold project will be the only domestic supply-35% of domestic six-year production demand.

The antimony mine in Idaho has been mined since 1899, initially as part of the Thunder Mountain gold rush to mine silver and gold.

Almost overnight, a small operation became a town of 1,000 people. The entire community developed around production for war. In the 1940s and 1950s, the blockade of the Pacific cut off U.S. supplies of tungsten and antimony from Asia.

During that time, it was essential for ammunition and used as a paint primer for battleships and aircraft. Antimony was one of the reasons the US government and entities formed an alliance at Perpetua's current project location during World War II and the Korean War.

"With the blockade of the Pacific Ocean, on the eve of World War II, we no longer had a source of tungsten and antimony-so the U.S. government started looking for it, and they found it in the antimony mine in Idaho," Leon said.

"Then the U.S. government commissioned small-scale mining operations there—especially Bradley Mining Corporation to produce tungsten and antimony for the war effort."

Prior to the introduction of stricter environmental regulations, the mining industry continued throughout the end of the Korean War.

By the 1990s, after gold and antimonite were mined, the site became a mess.

Perpetua has submitted a recovery and operations plan to the US Forest Service for review, including restoring legacy impacts from the first year of construction. 2020 FS confirmed the economic benefits of the community in Idaho, bringing in an initial capital investment of US$1.3 billion and creating 550 direct jobs.

In August 2020, the US Forest Service released a draft Environmental Impact Report (EIS).

Of the 10,000 comments received, 85% supported the project. Lyon stated that Perpetua reviewed and submitted improvement measures and expects to receive an EIS from the Forest Service later this year.

"We understand the importance of this project to Idaho, and the people of Idaho are responsible and take the lead," Lyon said.

A major environmental restoration that needs to be done is the east tributary of the Salmon River’s southern tributary flowing into an abandoned mining pit on the site, where Chinook salmon and cattle trout migrate along the river—meaning miles of important habitat.

As the fish have left their natural habitats in degraded areas, and the 10.5 million tons of tailings left behind that affect water quality, the Perpetua team prepared work for them.

"When we arrived at the antimony mine, it was clear from the first day that if we were to carry out modern gold and antimony mining operations, we would have to equip it with the environmental solutions needed," Lyon said.

"Our project was designed in the first few years of construction, [ie] we entered and repaired the sedimentary sources that caused habitat and water quality degradation, we collected the remaining tailings, reprocessed and safely stored them, and then obtained them and Groundwater interacts with surface water."

Perpetua's plan is to improve water quality and build a fish tunnel.

"We will re-mine the Ponderosa pit-this is the largest source of gold, and divert the river into a redesigned fish channel based on scientific knowledge of fish migration routes... to ensure that adults can get up in the river and teenagers can go down. "Leon said.

"It is entirely responsible for those migrating fish to return to their critical habitats that they currently cannot access, and to proceed as soon as mining begins. We will not wait until the end to allow them to reach their critical habitats."

Lyon said the restoration of the Stibnite River will increase the migration route of fish from their blocked habitat by 7 to 11 miles.

"We can use resources, technology and expertise to solve long-standing problems."

The EIS draft indicates that river functional units have increased by 23%, and wetland functional units have increased by 40%.

"If we bring this technology to this river, it tells a good story of what modern mining can do on brownfield sites," Lyon said.

"The story of salmon swimming back in Idaho is a heroic story."