Tin — Structural brief

What tin is used for and why substitution is hard

Tin's dominant application is solder, where it joins electronic components without requiring temperatures that damage them. The property that matters is a low melting point combined with good wetting of copper, and it is not closely reproduced by cheaper metals at the same reliability. Refining runs to between 99.85 and 99.99 percent purity, because impurities that would be immaterial in a structural metal cause joint failures in electronics^[1].

Because the metal is recoverable from process residues and from tinplate, secondary supply is substantial rather than marginal: the United States alone recovered around 17,000 tonnes from scrap in 2025^[1].

Where tin is mined and where it is processed

World mine production was approximately 290,000 tonnes of contained tin in 2025^[1]. China led at an estimated 71,000 tonnes and Indonesia followed at about 61,000 tonnes^[1]. The Democratic Republic of the Congo contributed an estimated 27,000 tonnes and Myanmar about 12,000 tonnes^[1].

Refining is considerably more concentrated than mining. Chinese refined output is more than double Chinese mine production, leaving external dependence on imported raw material above 60 percent^[1].

The single tightest point in the chain

The constraint is not the quantity mined but the quantity available for purchase. Integrated producers consume their own output, and several producing jurisdictions prohibit ore export by law, so the merchant pool is far smaller than the production table implies^[1][2]. Within that pool, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar together account for close to a fifth of world supply, and both carry acute political and licensing risk^[1].