🌱 What is cassiterite?
Cassiterite is a tin ore, and it is considered critical for the energy transition. Cassiterite is used in lithium-ion batteries, the coatings of solar panels, and as solder for electronics in wind turbines. Due to the high demand for it, cassiterite is referred to as “black gold”.
🌱 What drives the mining?
The price of tin went up by 29% in the first six months of 2024. A kilo of cassiterite is worth USD 14-21. While this is a lot less than gold, cassiterite is “more plentiful and easier to extract”. Brazil is currently one of the world’s largest tin exporters. International mining firms interested in Brazil’s mineral wealth and the government’s launch of several initiatives to encourage investments have driven the search for critical metals in the country. Notably, miners in Brazil “can make 20 times as much as Brazil’s minimum wage”.
🌱 What issues arise?
Cassiterite has attracted not only mining companies, but increasingly also illegal mining gangs to the Brazilian Amazon. Groups mining the ore illegally pose a considerable threat to Indigenous people. Recently, thousands of illegal miners have come to the Yanomami reserves to mine cassiterite. So far, “authorities have seized and destroyed more than 38 tonnes of cassiterite on Yanomami territory” this year.
🌱 What other illegal mining is there?
Many of the gangs mining cassiterite on Indigenous lands also illegally mine manganese, copper, and gold there. At the start of 2024, the Brazilian police raided several illegal copper and gold sites on the land of the Kayapó Indigenous people. One of these sites held workers in slave-like conditions. In July 2024, the Brazilian police also closed an illegal manganese mining site on Kayapó land. In June 2024 alone, the Brazilian authorities seized 23 000 tonnes of manganese before these were exported to China.
🌱 How is the illegal mining linked?
Just as with cassiterite, both manganese and copper are relevant for the energy transition and have seen considerable price increases this year. The earnings from cassiterite mining on Yanomami land are largely used to finance the costly illegal gold mining on the same land. It is estimated that the illegal mining on Yanomami land could yield an average of 300kg of cassiterite a day and 4kg of gold per month.
🌱 How could the problem be tackled?
Cassiterite is considered a conflict mineral in the EU and US. Yet, in 2023, the Brazilian police uncovered a massive-scale laundering scam around cassiterite. Companies looking to source minerals in a more responsible manner should follow best practices and make use of technology to make the process safer for people and the planet. The current problem stems largely from the fact that this is not done, and that the law and voluntary market requirements currently still set too low standards for mining companies.
Read more about cassiterite mining here:
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