A senior Bolivian government official warned of mines closures and job losses if world tin prices continue to fall. The country has already been hit hard by the slump in zinc prices and last month announced measures to support small scale mines.
Freddy Beltran, mining director at the Bolivian Ministry of Mining told La Prensa newspaper that mines will be forced to stop operating if the price of tin falls from $5.10 a pound to $4.50 (approximately $11,200 to $9,900/tonne), the La Paz-based newspaper said. The tin mining industry in Bolivia accounts for about 30,000 jobs, the newspaper said, citing statistics from mining federations in La Paz, Potosi and Oruro.
Bolivia’s production of tin-in-concentrate rose by 6.9% to 12,393 tonnes in January-September this year, with gains in output from the state-owned Huanuni mine, private medium-scale mines and small mines and co-operatives. The value of tin exports in the nine months rose to $219 million, out of a total $1.55 billion earned from metal exports. The country’s two most important metal export earners have been zinc ($606 million in the nine months) and silver ($406 million).
