World of Tin

By night fitful fires of Ilama dung and cactus leaves lighted the little camp 13,000 feet up on the cold and terrifying wastes of the Bolivian Andes. By day the treeless wilderness rang with the blows of a crude stone hammer as a swarthy Bolivian and a handful of Indians kept themselves warm smashing rocks. In quest of the precious, bluish-white metal called tin, they found only dull reddish dirt. The Indians, craving alcohol and coca leaves, wanted to quit. One day they cracked out a few grains of tin. Later a full-fledged vein was uncovered. The Bolivian went to catch some Ilamas, loaded them with tin ore, plodded down to La Paz. Soon all Bolivia had heard that Simon Patino, onetime grocer's clerk, was growing rich.

That was in 1905. Next year the agent of a U. S. firm, reported to be the Guggenheims, appeared with an offer to buy the Salvadora mine, which Simon Patino had acquired from a Portuguese prospector in payment for a grocery bill--a deal which cost the clerk his store job. Patino wanted to sell but his wife did not. "We will go bankrupt with Salvadora," she cried, "or you will be el gran Mirador, the greatest of tin miners." Senor Patino climbed on his mule and went back to his mine.

Today, single-handed and in his own right, el gran Mirador controls some 10% of the world's tin output. Many times a millionaire, Simon Patino lives in a gaudy and fantastic palace in Paris. He warms himself at his villa in a forest of pine and mimosa above Nice. His son is married to a Bourbon princess, one of his daughters to a Spanish marquis. In Bolivia the tax on his mines is the country's chief source of revenue. In 1926 Bolivia made him Minister to France, where he bought his own embassy. Patino Mines & Enterprises Consolidated, Inc. is closely allied with National Lead Co., second biggest consumer of tin in the U. S.

But Senor Patino is not satisfied with his high Bolivian holdings. In Malaya are tin mines producing more than his, where ore can be produced for shipment more cheaply than in the Andes. Two years ago he got two options on a million shares of British Tin Investment Corp., a holding company. Last week he snapped up one of these options. With his stockholders' approval he began buying 860,000 shares outright, took options on 298,000 more, all at a total cost of -L-808,042. If he takes up his last option he will own some 33% and working control in ten major Malayan tin mines with an output probably equal to his Bolivian holdings.

Production. A checkerboard of world tin would need to have at least six squares--Malaya, Bolivia, Dutch East Indies, Nigeria, Siam and China. Wilhelmina of Holland owns and operates the Dutch mines in Batavia, which produce 15% to 20% of the world tin, solely as a government enterprise. The Malay States produce about 30% through two tin kingdoms--one, Anglo-Oriental Mining, controlled by a 6-ft. Englishman named John H. C. Howeson, who also has a part interest in British Tin Investment Corp.; the other, ruled by three Englishmen named Mair, Thomas and Stephens. Nigeria, Siam and China produce from 15% to 25%. There are tin mines in Australia, in Spain, in Japan, but they are not important. The famed Cornwall mines in England, which shipped tin to Italy after Caesar invaded Britain, began to run down during Queen Victoria's reign, produced only 3,000 tons in 1929.

Price. In 1926 tin which cost anywhere from $350 to $800 a ton to mine, sold for $1,400. World production was 143,580 tons that year, world consumption 133,362. By 1929 production had jumped to 186,874 tons, but consumption lagged behind at 165,900. While the tin kings were thus accumulating large surpluses the price of tin began to fall. By 1930 it was $550 per ton. The tycoons called a meeting in London, formed a pool and a committee. The pool bought 21,000 tons of surplus tin. The committee restricted production, first to 145,000 tons a year, later to 110,000. Its aim was to stabilize tin at a minimum price of $600 per ton. In 1933 world production was down to 87,431 tons, the price was up to $1,189 by the end of the year. Last week when the price was $1,248, the International Tin Research and Development Council reported that consumption for the year ended Feb. 1934 was up 28%.

Consumption. The U. S. produces no tin, consumes more than half of the world output. Tin is used chiefly in combination with other metals. Ordinary solder is tin and lead in equal parts. Copper and tin give gun metal, bell metal, Babbitt metal (with antimony) for automobile and locomotive engine bearings, and many another alloy. In pure form it is used as tin foil, can be hammered so thin that one pound will make 18,500 sq. in. of tinfoil. Tin's greatest single use in the U. S. (46% of total) is as plating for cans. U. S. Steel, tin's biggest customer in the U. S., dips rolled steel plates into molten tin, sells them to the can makers. Only 1 1/2% of a tin can is tin, but the annual tin can consumption, nearly 12,000,000,000 a year, has fallen off only three-tenths of 1% since 1929.

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