U.S.Geological Survey (USGS): Tin

Statistics and Information: Tin is one of the earliest metals known and used. Because of its hardening effect on copper, tin was used in bronze implements as early as 3,500 B.C., although the pure metal was not used until about 600 B.C. About 35 countries mine tin throughout the world. Nearly every continent has an important tin-mining country. Tin is a relatively scarce element with an abundance in the earth’s crust of about 2 parts per million (ppm), compared with 94 ppm for zinc, 63 ppm for copper, and 12 ppm for lead. Most of the world’s tin is produced from placer deposits; at least one-half comes from Southeast Asia. The only mineral of commercial importance as a source of tin is cassiterite (SnO₂), although small quantities of tin are recovered from complex sulfides such as stanite, cylindrite, frankeite, canfieldite, and teallite.

Most tin is used as a protective coating or as an alloy with other metals such as lead or zinc. Tin is used in coatings for steel containers, in solders for joining pipes or electrical/electronic circuits, in bearing alloys, in glass-making, and in a wide range of tin chemical applications. Secondary, or scrap, tin is an important source of the tin supply.

Tin
(Data in thousand metric tons of tin content unless otherwise noted)

U.S. Domestic Production and Use: Tin has not been mined or smelted in the United States since 1993 and 1989, respectively. Twenty-five firms used about 86% of the primary tin consumed domestically in 2008. The major uses were as follows: cans and containers, 26%; electrical, 24%; construction, 11%; transportation, 11%; and other, 28%. On the basis of the average New York composite price, the estimated values of some critical items in 2008 were as follows: primary metal consumed, $1.3 billion; imports for consumption, refined tin, $1.4 billion; and secondary production (old scrap), $301 million.

U.S. Recycling: About 15,000 tons of tin from old and new scrap was recycled in 2008. Of this, about 12,000 tons was recovered from old scrap at 2 detinning plants and 84 secondary nonferrous metal processing plants.

U.S. Import Sources (2004-07): Peru, 46%; Bolivia, 14%; China, 14%; Indonesia, 10%; and other, 16%. 16%.

U.S. Tariff: Most major imports of tin, including unwrought metal, waste and scrap, and unwrought tin alloys, enter the United States duty free.

U.S. Depletion Allowance: 22% (U.S. domestic), 14% (Foreign).

U.S. Government Stockpile: The Defense National Stockpile Center (DNSC), Defense Logistics Agency, continued its tin sales program by offering material for sale under the negotiated format (long-term sales) and the Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) format (spot market sales). The DNSC Annual Materials Plan for tin sales for fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008) remained at 12,000 tons, although inventory levels were approximately 3,800 tons. DNSC planned one long-term negotiated “contract” sale for fiscal year 2008 and weekly offerings under the DNSC BOA. Under the BOA approach, DNSC posts the amount of tin that it wants to sell on its Web site every Tuesday. Interested parties submit a quote, and DNSC makes a sales determination by the end of the business day. Tin is held in the Federal depot in Hammond, IN. In August 2008, DNSC suspended the sales of several commodities, including tin, until further notice as a result of an ongoing study to address congressional concerns about Department of Defense needs for strategic and critical materials.

Events, Trends, and Issues: Apparent consumption of tin in the United States increased an estimated 3% in 2008 compared with that of 2007. The average monthly composite price of tin rose steadily during the first 5 months of 2008, rising from $10.04 per pound in January and reaching $14.54 in May; then the average composite price declined steadily through much of the rest of the year, reaching $12.21 per pound in August. These represented substantially higher prices than those that prevailed in 2007. Higher prices in 2008 were attributed to a combination of increased demand worldwide and erratic supply situations in some countries.

Developments continued in major tin-consuming countries to move to new lead-free solders that usually contain greater amounts of tin then do leaded solders.

Tin producers responded to the higher tin prices in 2008 with tin mine and tin smelter openings and expansions, including ones in Australia, Bolivia, Canada, and Thailand. Tin exploration activity increased, especially in Australia and Canada.

China continued as the world’s leading tin producer from both mine and smelter sources, but experienced sporadic difficulty in obtaining feedstock for its smelters. Indonesia, the world’s second leading tin producer from both mine and smelter sources, continued to experience some production difficulties, some related to a Government shutdown of possibly illegal production sites.

World Mine Production, Reserves, and Reserve Base: Reserves and reserve base numbers for Malaysia were decreased, after consultation with Malaysian Government sources, to reflect a longtime downward trend in tin mining and exploration.

World Resources: U.S. resources of tin, primarily in Alaska, were insignificant compared with those of the rest of the world. World resources, principally in western Africa, southeastern Asia, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, China, and Russia,are sufficient to sustain recent annual production rates well into the future.

Substitutes: Aluminum, glass, paper, plastic, or tin-free steel substitute for tin in cans and containers. Other materials that substitute for tin are epoxy resins for solder; aluminum alloys, copper-base alloys, and plastics forbronze; plastics for bearing metals that contain tin; and compounds of lead and sodium for some tin chemicals.

(e) Estimated. NA Not available. — Zero

U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2009