Don Thurston Blog

If Bolivia was once called the tin roof of the world what could it be called now?

How about the lithium basement of the world?

The story of tin is a very long one that reaches far back into antiquity. Bronze is an amalgam of tin and copper; pewter is an amalgam of copper, antimony, sometimes silver and historically lead. Lead is now not included because of health risks. Stories of lead poisoning because of the pewter alloy are captured when the privileged use it for flat ware and mugs. A brief use in dental amalgams had the same effect.

Presently about fifty percent of the world’s tin production is used in making solder. A substantial part of the remainder coats other metals to prevent corrosion, hence we have tin cans. Sadly tin foil had a brief romance with packaging only to be replaced by aluminum. This product does not transfer any taste contamination and can be rolled into a finer material.  So why do we still call this aluminum product tin foil?

The production of tin is generally quite messy, involving the placer mining.  This includes blasting the tin containing ore with high pressure water jets followed by gravity separation and refining.

Bolivia once occupied an enviable position in tin production. Early social studies text books referred to Bolivia as the tin roof  of the world. Production remains, now substantially reduced in the world’s ranking.

Once the world’s tin roof, Bolivia is in a position to become the lithium basement. The country has a vast supply contained in acres of salt flats. Unless you missed it, this metal is a fundamental component in batteries needed to power all the electronic gizmos of today. Now electric cars are seen by some as the future in automotive transportation. If so lithium batteries have a great future,

Bolivian politicians can now visualize another chance. Earlier it was tin, now it is lithium. This time they want much greater benefits to flow to their country, in particular the production of batteries.

The scenarios are now unfolding. Watch for the debates, the posturing and the economic analyses that go with public versus private ownership, regulations requiring extension into value add products and net benefits toBolivia.  Perhaps all that is necessary is to insert tin into any commodity exploitation debate, oil for example.

Thanks for reading!

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