The ancients were familiar with antimony in both its metal and sulfide form. Fragments of a Chaldean vase made of antimony in 4000 BC were found. In the Old Testement, Queen Jezebel was said to have used sulfide of antimony to beautify her eyes. Pliny wrote about seven medicinal remedies with stibium, or antimony sulfide. Basil Valentine wrote a book summarizing the available knowledge of antimony in the 1600s. The name antimony seems to be derived from the Latin antimimonium. The real origin is unknown.

High-grade or enriched stibnite reacts directly with scrap iron in the molten state, liberating antimony metal. The metal can also be obtained by conversion of stibnite to the oxide, followed by reduction with carbon. Sodium sulfide solutions are effective leaching agents for the concentration of stibnite from ores. Electrolysis of these solutions produces antimony. After further purification of the crude antimony, the metal, called regulus, is cast into cakes. About half of this antimony is used principally in alloys. It improves the hardness and corrosion resistance of lead. Most of the metal is used for lead alloys, largely for storage batteries, but also for chemical equipment such as tanks, pipes, and pumps. With tin, antimony forms such alloys as britannia metal and pewter, used for utensils, and Babbitt metal for bearings. Other applications of antimony alloys are in solder, type metal, and other special materials. Highly purified antimony is used in semiconductor technology to prepare the intermetallic compounds indium, aluminum, and gallium antimonide for diodes and infrared detectors.