TIN a precious metal?

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Dabloodymess

Active Member
In a moment of weakness today I found myself flicking through The Australian over coffee.

In the busines section I came across this article by Robin Bromby:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...-a-silver-lining/story-e6frg9if-1226009067118

Besides his views on silver, what I found most interesting was the tail end of the article discussing tin-

TIN a precious metal? No, we haven't been at the cooking sherry again. That's the view at BNP Paribas. Well, their exact words were that with the metal moving over $US32,000 a tonne or $US1 an ounce it had "become, in effect, a precious metal".

BNP is predicting a deficit this year and probably in 2012. Japan's imports of refined tin rose by 60 per cent last year and Indonesia's largest producer, PT Timah, saw decreased output last year. On the other hand, there is talk of three big Congolese mines reopening.

And no one knows how much the Chinese are stockpiling.
Click to expand...

So is anyone here going to start stacking tin now its a precious metal? Seems to me the hint that the Chinese are stockpiling (like they are with everything else it seems) is the most likely thing keeping prices up.
 
Woo hoo! Out of interest i bought some tin bars a few years ago with the intent of using them as a paperweight on my new desk in the study. (not that i like loose papers kept on the desk)

Didn't realise that i was about to stack another valuable metal.... :P
 
Thats what surprised me as well, whenever I think of 'other' precious metals I automatically think of copper, and then aluminium in that order... this idea of tin being worth so much seemed to come out of no where, probably because I just wasnt paying attention though :)
 
Been to a few Cassiterite mines up in North Queensland from the turn of the century when heavy tin plating was the norm for canned (nee tinned) food stuffs and steel protection. Most of them were hardrock mining (expensive). We were told that most of them went bust when the demand for tin was popped by new thin plating techniquies and plastic membranes used on steel cans to prevent spoilage and corrosion. But the tin shows are still there waiting to restarted..

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/04/14/105621_local-business-news.html

But the truth is we couldn't compete against SE Asian countries who didn't give a stuff about their natural environment and put sand barges on their best beaches and rivers which turn the beach profile upside down while washing the tin out. If you've ever seen a beach destroyed by tin mining....you'll know heart breaking really means

179_dunes-damaged-by-illegal-sand-mining.jpg

http://www.indomines.com.au

179_sand-mining-ukraine-13789132.jpg

http://image.shutterstock.com

Truth of the matter is though..that everything is going up bigtime.... just look at some of the other commodities on this website;
http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=tin&months=60

And while the raw materials are going up...our consumer priices at the shops have remained static. IMHO, this situation is the same as if the raw materials stayed the same but the shop prices declined....and that's called DEFLATION !!!!
 
Clawhammer said:
Been to a few Cassiterite mines up in North Queensland from the turn of the century when heavy tin plating was the norm for canned (nee tinned) food stuffs and steel protection. Most of them were hardrock mining (expensive). We were told that most of them went bust when the demand for tin was popped by new thin plating techniquies and plastic membranes used on steel cans to prevent spoilage and corrosion. But the tin shows are still there waiting to restarted..

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/04/14/105621_local-business-news.html

But the truth is we couldn't compete against SE Asian countries who didn't give a stuff about their natural environment and put sand barges on their best beaches and rivers which turn the beach profile upside down while washing the tin out. If you've ever seen a beach destroyed by tin mining....you'll know heart breaking really means

http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/179_dunes-damaged-by-illegal-sand-mining.jpg
http://www.indomines.com.au

http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/179_sand-mining-ukraine-13789132.jpg
http://image.shutterstock.com
Click to expand...
Not to mention, as ore grades reduce, environmental damage and energy inputs increase, thus driving the price higher, sort of a feedback loop. This applies to most resources.
That's the biggest issue I have with nuclear power, if the whole world goes nuclear, goodbye Kakadu.
 
goldpelican said:
Well if it hits $4-5/oz... silver was there less than 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there is a pricing effect, whereby a base metal value would have a positive effect on a PM. Suddenly Tin or "Tun" as it's pronounced in NZ, is a PM pulling other base metals into the PM pricing arena along with it and higher value metals even higher ? Incidentally, my Dad had some pure Tin rods. I remember when you bent them & they crackled & popped for some reason.
 
I just grab pewter when I can pick it up cheep, around 90+% tin I think, melts into bars real easy.
 
been lookin at the tin bars on ebay for ages thinkin they might be a good investment still to low for me.
 
I think the lab stuff is 63/37 Sn/Pb... but the beauty of solder is that you can refine it pretty easily at low temps... just melt the solder in a crucible and add lead - once the concentration of lead is high enough, the lead blob should sink to the bottom of the crucible, and you can pour off the tin... Something to do with lead having atoms much larger than tin. All this can be done with a standard high school bunsen burner
 
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