Review of publicly available academic, industry, and NGO research as well as first-hand personal accounts of the impacts of tin mining and processing.

Summary:

• Tin has been used since the Bronze Age, and continues to be used today as an alloy, primarily as a solder for electronics

• Tin is relatively scarce, and its only economically viable ore is cassiterite, which due to its chemistry leads to losses of 20-30% during initial processing

• Cassiterite is co-present in many places with heavy metals including arsenic, as well as radioactive uranium and thorium

• Myanmar, China, and Indonesia are the third largest countries mining tin, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a tin producer as well

• Both DRC and Myanmar are involved in armed conflicts, and as such are under regulation from the EU and/or the US for tin sourced that funds armed groups

• A wide range of environmental and health impacts of tin mining are present in all places where it is mined, and Indonesia, mining is not only taking place on land, but on the seabed floor

• Tin like other metals is highly recyclable, and recycling could avoid much of the energy, environmental, and social sustainability impacts that virgin mining and processing has