TIN PRODUCTION

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 267, 6 August 1932, Page 10

TIN PRODUCTION

World Price and Stocks PRODUCTION CONTROL N.Z. Engineer’s Return In an attempt to reduce the world stocks of tin and bo to restore the price an international committee of control has during the last year or two been drastically limiting the annual production of the metal. An account of the present situation pas given to “The Dominion” yesterday by Mr. John G. Goosman, M.1.M.M., a mining engineer who returned to New Zealand bv the Rangitata after many years in South America. During his time there ha worked at altitudes above sea-level drying from 5000 feet to 16,000 feet and even examined a mine at a height world production in 1928, said Mr Goosman, was 180,000 tons of tine tin’ of which the Malay States produced 42 per cent., Bolivia 22 per cent., and the rest of the world, including Nigeria, Australia, China, the remainder The Tin Control Commission, of London, had been gradually reducing the output of all mines until this year the world production of tin would be 90000 tons, of which Bolivia would produce the same proportion. The price bf tin had been £3OO a ton in 1926, and was at present about £l2O a ton Production had been reduced in an attempt to get present stocks consumed, and the price in some measure restored. Increase in Stocks. The largest tin mine in the world, at LlallagUa, in Bolivia, was in the Patino group, which took its name from Sr. Simon Patino, Bolivian Minister in Paris, who was chairman of the Tin Control Commission, and also largely interested in allied industries. The commission had been set up at the beginning of 1931 on an international basis. Normal stocks of tin totalled 16,000 tons, but during the crisis had gone as high as 60,000 tons. The commission was formed in order to reduce stocks by control. It set up an Important subsidiary body, a research committee, in order to discover new uses for the metal, and this committee had been on the job for some time. The largest user of tin was the automobile industry, and owing to the depression the amount used had decreased. Tin was.employed also in the manufacture of artificial silk, In white metal for bearings, and in the tinning industry. The United States consumed 60 per cent, of the world’s tin production, but consumption had fallen there during the depression just as in every other country. Long Experience. Before going to South America, Mr. Goosman was for a number of years with the Walhl Gold Mining Company. During his 20 years overseas he has done both copper mining and silver mining. At Collahuasl la Grande he worked at an altitude of 16.000 feet above sea-level. Subsequently he was at the Cc*dariaco silver mines in Chile, then with the Inca Mining Company in Peru, and from there became general manager of the Moracocola' tin mines in Bolivia. Before returning to New Zealand for six months in 1925 he was general manager of the Gatico copper mines in Chile. When he went back to South America he was first at the Ocuri tin mines in Bolivia, and then linked up with the Patino group as general manager of the Araca Tin Mining Company, a position he has held for the last 5J years. ,