Tin is commonly referred to as the “glue” of metals as it’s used to bind electrical components together. The soft, highly malleable, and rust-resistant metal is present everywhere in everyday life and is a critical component of high-tech hardware, electrical vehicles, robotics, and renewable technology.
With 97% of the global supply coming from developing economies – and 40% coming from artisanal and small-scale miners – the world is in desperate need of new sources of this non-toxic metal (Sn).
There are only a handful of projects operating and even fewer sustainable ones. Globally, the majority of tin is produced from alluvial mining, a highly unsustainable practice.
And while tin is one of the few metals used and traded by humans for thousands of years, demand is not abating rather it’s surging, primarily driven by increased use of electronics, the rise of the internet of things, and the renewable technology revolution.
A key metal in the electronics industry – solder alone accounts for 50% of world demand – tin is benefiting greatly from energy and digital transitions. However, supply growth remains limited, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Myanmar, which is expected to lead to a supply deficit as early as 2026 – the first in about five years.
The DRC and Myanmar account for 20% of global tin production and 60% of Chinese tin ore imports so this is not a small issue.
However, trade credit risk management firm Coface reports that overall, refined tin production is poised to grow by 3% in 2026, following 2% growth in 2025.
“This will be insufficient to offset the expected 3.5% increase in demand in 2026. The market is therefore expected to shift into deficit this year, a situation that is likely to continue in the years to come,” Coface reports.
“Finally, in the longer term, the main challenge will be the expansion of mining capacity, as the depletion of exploited deposits is a major vulnerability for the entire value chain.”
According to Coface, tin remains a strategic asset in China’s pursuit of self-sufficiency in data management infrastructure. Conversely, production in neighbouring Indonesia, which is the largest global exporter, could decline, “given regulatory constraints and growing aversion to mining projects. Domestic production is expected to fall by 2% in 2026 (after -1% the previous year)”.
Data‑based tech demand fuelling price rise
During 2025, tin was the best performing of the base metals, gaining nearly 40%. In January alone it surged another 40%, to hit a recent record high of US$56,800 per tonne.
This is being driven by supply concerns around Indonesian exports – the largest global exporter – and highlights structural tightness in the market and the increasingly strategic nature of tin metal. (The Indonesian Government shut down some 1,000 illegal tin mining operations during September 2025.)
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Hedley Widdup, Managing Director of ASX-listed specialist mining investment company Lion Selection Group (ASX:LSX), says tin’s applications are as many as they are varied and this ties in with its price rise.
“The demand picture is really, really firm. I’d say if you look back over the last 25-30 years in tin and look at copper, if you take a long term price chart of copper and a long term price chart of tin, the shape is exactly the same. Very, very similar,” says Widdup.
“There’s moments where it breaks away and usually where that’s broken away is where there’s been supply surprises. Myanmar in Southeast Asia has an enormous amount of tin discovered there, I’m going to say a decade ago. And when that came to the market, it kind of just put a roof on the tin price for a long while. There’s been a big deposit that’s come online in the Congo, which has struggled with logistics, but the tin market is tiny, unlike the copper market.”
Tin is a relatively small and illiquid market compared with other base metals, and is particularly susceptible to the influence of investment funds, which can drive pronounced price volatility. While these flows provide additional liquidity, market participants have raised concerns about the undue role of financial institutions.
Coface sectorial economist Simon Lacoume says there is no doubt that the demand for data‑based technologies fuels the recent rise in tin prices. Coface expects average prices to hover around US$45,000 (+40% YoY) over H1 2026.
“Over the past two years, the tin price has been increasingly controlled by factors other than core fundamentals”
Given the limited global tin inventories and current fundamentals, prices are expected to remain strong, with supply deficits forecast to widen through to 2030.
The International Tin Association agrees that tin’s price is being buoyed by a broader uplift in the base metals complex amid heightened global tensions and a weakening US dollar.
“While the market has been in a prolonged deficit due to a series of protracted supply disruptions, ITA understands that the metal’s fundamentals are not the primary driver of the recent price rally,” the association reports.
“Over the past two years, the tin price has been increasingly controlled by factors other than core fundamentals. The supply disruptions affecting Myanmar and DR Congo remain largely unchanged from three months ago, but increased investor activity, particularly in China, have pushed prices higher.
“In Indonesia, exports have halted in the new year given the seasonal cycle of export permit renewals. ITA expects the disruption to be limited as regulators will honour existing three-year RKAB mining and smelting licences until the end of March 2026.”
All things with tin
Tin (Sn) is a soft, non-toxic, highly malleable, rust and fatigue resistant metal. It’s one of the few metals that has been used and traded by humans for more than 5,000 years, as reported by Mining.com.au.
According to Geoscience Australia, tin has a low melting point and alloys easily with other metals, “thus enabling humans to combine tin with copper to make bronze, taking us from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age”.
It’s still used in bronze, however nowadays tin is used in solders for joining metals and pipes, as a coating for steel cans, and in metal alloys.
Solders are the largest single application for tin, accounting for about 50% of current world consumption. Solders are used in light engineering applications such as plumbing and sheet metal work, in the motor vehicle industry, and in cans for various uses.
“Another major application for tin is coating steel sheet in the manufacture of tinplate, which accounts for about 16% of world tin consumption. Tinplate is used for containers in the form of cans for food products, drinks, oils, paints, disinfectants and chemicals,” Geoscience Australia says.
“Other uses for tin include tin oxide as a white pottery glaze, in the manufacture of plate glass, in superconducting magnets (for example niobium-tin), in dyes, disinfectants, perfumes, cast iron, fire retardants, pewter and tinsel.”
Tin occurs in both primary and secondary ore deposits. Primary ore deposits typically occur within granite or within associated pegmatites or aplites. Deposits also occur associated with the margins of these intrusive rocks as veins, disseminations, skarns or carbonate replacements generated by tin-bearing fluids derived from the granite magmas. Carbonate-replacement deposits (such as found in western Tasmania) form some of the largest tin deposits in Australia.
Cassiterite (SnO2) is by far the most important tin ore in all deposits. Small amounts of tin are also recovered from sulphide minerals such as stannite (Cu2FeSnS4). Secondary tin deposits (placers) come from the weathering and erosion of primary tin occurrences and deposits, where cassiterite readily forms residual concentrations owing to its density and chemical resistance.
Significant amounts of historical tin production in Australia have been from secondary sources, such as in the Mount Garnet region of north Queensland. Much of historical world production has also been from secondary sources, according to Geoscience Australia.
In the next part of this feature series, Mining.com.au digs deep into some of the most active companies in the burgeoning tin space.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock & Microsoft
