China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has set 2011 mining quotas for several minor metals, Reuters reported, increasing the permitted output of tungsten, tin, antimony, molybdenum and rare earths by between 5% and 12%. The announcement on MIIT’s website establishes new quotas for tin and molybdenum, but re-iterates ones already announced by the Ministry of Land and Resources for the other metals. In the case of tin MIIT’s quota for tin mine output has increased by 12% from 65,000 t of tin-in-concentrate in 2010 to 73,000 t for this year.ITRI says its understanding is that “the tin quota, which is allocated by province, is for general guidance in planning rather than a strict policy with penalties. Officially reported production of tin-in-concentrates last year was 83,636 t, well above the MIIT quota, while a separate quota for tin used by the Ministry of Land and Resources is 150,000 t. However the announcements by the ministries and other official bodies this year all point to increasing efforts to conserve resources and limit energy consumption.
ITRI also reports China’s refined tin imports fell by 38% year-on-year to 901 t in March according to latest data of China Customs. The total imports in the first quarter were 1,924 t, down by 58% year-on-year. This was the seventh consecutive month of year-on-year declines because of the discount of Chinese domestic prices to the LME for most of the period since last September. China exported 280 t refined tin in March according to the official data, following zero reported exports in the first two months of this year. However actual exports are known to be much greater that the official reported total, as tin is classified as products rather than metal, thereby avoiding export duty.
Although the China domestic tin price was still lower than the LME in the first quarter, concentrate imports were surprisingly high. China imported 9,004 t (gross weight) tin concentrate in first quarter 2011, up by 130% year-on-year. Most of concentrate arriving recently is from Myanmar, while concentrates from Bolivia accounted for a high proportion in the first quarter of last year.
Moving to Bolvia, ITRI notes the “government may seek to nationalise several privately operated mines, including Sinchi Wayra’s Colquiri zinc-tin mine. Sinchi Wayra is a subsidiary of Glencore. However in a recent interview with Reuters the country’s mining minister, Jose Pimental, emphasised that any change in the status of the operation would be effected by negotiation.”
“We are discussing with the company the possibility of shifting from a leasing agreement to a shared risk agreement with a majority participation by the state” he said. In an earlier report he had suggested that the Colquiri and other concessions, including the Porco zinc mine, would be rescinded as early as May 1.
Colquiri has an annual production capacity of some 6,000 t/y of low grade tin concentrate and ITRI estimates from official figures that it produced 2,026 t on tin-in-concentrate in 2010. Currently all concentrates from the mine are believed to be exported.
Moving to Spain, ITRI reports “Toronto-listed Eurotin has acquired Stannico, a junior exploration and development company with several tin projects in southern and central Spain, through an exchange of securities. In announcing the deal, Eurotin’s President and CEO Peter Miller also gave details of the growing potential for the development of its Oropesa project, based on drilling results since December.”
The deposit was identified as a single “significant mineralised structure” in the 1980s by Spain’s state geological survey IGME. Drilling over recent months has identified three further such structures, with a greater indicated strike length than the original one and indicated thicknesses of between 5 and 40 m. Some 5,000 m of core drilling has been carried out in 2011 and the company plans to add up to three drill rigs to the two in use up to Easter. Sn assays to date have ranged from 0.2% to 4.8%. Following the better determination of the positions of the mineralised structures, the company will embark on the initial definition of resource and reserve estimates.