According to the Critical Raw Materials List (2023), the European Union's (EU) reliance on antimony has reached 100%. Moreover, antimony is seen as a metal supporting the transition to a green economy. However, some countries have antimony resources, such as Slovakia, which has more than 3 Mt of antimony available.

The Bio4Sb project deals with recovering critical raw materials (CRMs) with a primary focus on antimony from primary resource by advanced biotechnological methods considering the environmental aspect. The process is based on the tetrahedrite concentrate bioleaching optimization by acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria at ambient temperature, which represents environmentally less demanding yet energy-efficient ways of extracting metals compared to conventional mineral separation and chemical processing routes.