handled to get a maximum price? This conference is not going to let any information out until they see what Congress is going to do. Mr. JOHNSON. No, sir; I did not know there were any tin discussions under way at the present time. Senator MALONE. There are. I suppose in some way we can get the information before Congress convenes. I hope so. This Geneva conference is taking up many items, but the participants are complaining about the uncertainty as to whether Congress is going to permit further United States participation in the discussions and whether Congress will continue to allow the International Materials Conference to control the supply and give nations their entitlements for consumption. That is the way the world consumption of many metals is divided. The International Materials Conference was substituted for the International Trade Organization when the latter fell on its face in committee. These hearings and the unrest in Congress has interrupted the program. If Congress goes along with it, it will be resumed, of course. Mr. JOHNSON. If you wish to go on with that subject, Senator, I think Mr. Zinner would like to have his assistant, Mr. Merrill, who is here, and who has had special responsibilities in connection with tin. Senator MALONE. We will take that up later. I should not have gone as far as I have, because we are delaying your testimony. It is another matter we intend to take up later in hearings with the representatives of foreign nations. Does that complete your statement on tin? Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir. Senator MALONE. Do you have a text? Mr. JOHNSON. We turned that in already. Senator MALONE. The charts already described, and the text, will be accepted, and appear in the record at this point as a part of Mr. Johnson's testimony. (The information is as follows:) TIN The Western Hemisphere, which accounts for nearly half the world consumption of primary tin, is deficient in reserves and now produces less than a fifth of the total world supply. The United States itself produces only negligible quantities and its known deposits are small and uneconomic. Bolivian tin deposits, the source of practically the whole Western Hemisphere output, are numerous and sizable, but production there is costly compared with Malaya and Indonesia. USES, SUBSTITUTES, AND CONSERVATION Tin is one of the most useful of the base metals because of its fusibility, malleability, resistance to corrosion, readiness to alloy with many other metals, and attractive silvery white color. Tin is but little affected by air at ordinary temperature even in the presence of moisture and has excellent resistance to organic acids, consequently its major use has been in the form of tin plate for canning and packaging foods. Tin flows readily under pressure and may easily be rolled into foil or extruded into tubes. In combination with other metals it imparts valuable properties to numerous alloys of major industrial importance, such as bronzes, solders, and babbitts. The following tables present both monthly and annual salient statistics of tin: TABLE 2.-Salient statistics of tin in the United States, July-December 1952 and January-June 1953 Solder and The most important single use for tin is the making of tinplate. bronze are the next most important uses. Collapsible tubes and foil account for small requirements. Various tin-bearing chemicals are commercially important. Table 3 shows consumption of tin by uses. Except for the precious metals, gold and silver, tin has been the highest priced of the common metals for some years. As a consequence much research has been carried on to find substitutes, but for most of the established uses of tin the search for satisfactory substitutes has met with little success. Aluminum has been used as a substitute for making foil and collapsible tubes. The most important tin-saving development has been the introduction of electrolytic tinplate in place of hot-dipped tinplate. The former can be made with much less tin and for many purposes is equally serviceable. Solders have been developed with a low tin content. When necessary, consumption of tin can be drastically reduced by restriction of nonessential uses and other conservational measures. TABLE 3.—United States tin consumption, in long tons by end-use products, 1 Excludes terneplate. ? Excludes 5,200 long tons of tin contained in imported tin-base alloys, of which 2,700 tons were used for solder; 2,000 tons for bronze and brass; 360 tons for babbitt; and 150 tons for other products. Includes small tonnage of secondary pig tin and tin acquired in chemicals. PRODUCTION Tin is mined chiefly from placer deposits in which cassiterite (tin oxide) is the valuable tin mineral, and to a lesser extent, as in Bolivia, from lode deposits in which cassiterite is also the chief tin mineral. The chief tin fields are in southeast Asia, Bolivia, and Africa. The leading producers of southeast Asia are Malaya, Indonesia, Siam, Burma, China, and Indochina. In Africa, Belgian Congo and Nigeria lead. The following table shows world production in 1952: The known deposits in the United States are either too small or too low grade to afford a significant national resource. These domestic occurrences have been exhaustively studied and numerous unsuccessful attempts have been made to exploit certain of them. The Government is at the present time giving financial assistance in a tin-mining venture at Lost River, Alaska. In 1952, 100 long tons of tin were produced domestically compared with 90 tons in 1951. Alaska was the principal producer. Operations in Alaska were confined mainly to placer deposits of the Northern Tin Co., Inc., on Buck Creek and lode mining by the United States Tin Corp., at Lost River on Seward Peninsula. At Climax, Colo., the Climax Molybdenum Corp. produced some tin as a byproduct of molybdenum mining and at Kings Mountain, N. C., the Foote Mineral Co. recovered small tonnages of tin as a byproduct of mining spodumene ores. SECONDARY TIN Secondary tin is reclaimed from tinplate and other scrap. The annual yield has been equal to about one-third of the domestic-tin consumption. About a third of this secondary tin is derived from reworking industrial scrap resulting from fabrication of primary tin metal, and two-thirds is recovered from worn out and discarded articles. Of the total secondary tin about 10 percent is recovered as metallic tin-mostly by detinning plants treating clean tinplate clippings. The remainder has been in the form of alloys (87 percent) and chemicals (3 percent). A good portion of the use of tin is dissipative and does not add to the reservoir of metal in use that could be drawn upon should imports cease. More than 85 percent of the tin used for making tinplate is not recovered, and substantial tonnages consumed for tinning and chemicals are for purposes not amenable to recovery. The recovery of tin from old cans has been tried, but largely due to the collection and cleaning problem it has not proved economical. During 1948-53, the secondary tin recovered in the United States averaged 28,000 long tons annually. Western Hemisphere RESERVES The principal reserves of the Western Hemisphere are in Bolivia. In 1940, estimates by the Bolivian Department of Mines gave Bolivia 500,000 metric tons of contained tin in ore (positive and probable). Alaska.-According to Materials Survey-Tin (1953) the total reserves of all classes of tin ore in Alaska are estimated to contain 5,000 tons of metallic tin. Further exploration may add substantially to this figure. Canada and United States.-Cassiterite has been found in many States of the United States, but these occurrences are of minor economic importance. Eastern Hemisphere The chief tin reserves of the Eastern Hemisphere lie in a mineralized belt which is continuous through lower Burma, Thailand, the Malay States, into the islands of Singkep, Banka, and Billiton in Indonesia. No recent and authoritative estimates of these reserves have been made, but they are believed to be on the order of 3 to 5 million tons, and largely in the form of placer deposits. WORLD CONSUMPTION World consumption of primary tin in 1952 (excludes U. S. S. R.) totaled 129,000 long tons, a decrease of 7 percent compared with 1951, and about 42,000 tons less than the tin mined in 1952. A geographical breakdown of tin consumption in 1952 is presented in the following table: |