Good lodes of stibnite (sulphide of antimony) have been found near Roebourne in Western Australia, but no attempt has yet been made to work them.
The Arabic name for the naturally occurring stibnite is "kohl"; Dioscorides mentions it under the term v-riµµc, Pliny as stibium; and Geber as antimonium.
Antimony, however, occurs chiefly as the sulphide, stibnite; to a much smaller extent it occurs in combination with other metallic sulphides in the minerals wolfsbergite, boulangerite, bournonite, pyrargyrite, &c. For the preparation of metallic antimony the crude stibnite is first liquated, to free it from earthy and siliceous matter, and is then roasted in order to convert it into oxide.
Antimony trisulphide, Sb2S3, occurs as the mineral antimonite or stibnite, from which the commercial product is obtained by a process of liquation.