Peru’s Minsur S.A. is to sell its Brazilian subsidiary Mineração Taboca, which operates the Pitinga mine and the Pirapora smelter, to China Nonferrous Trade Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group Co. (CNMC).
The agreement signed on 26 November will see Minsur’s entire indirect holding in Taboca transferred to China Nonferrous Trade Co. Ltd., subject to certain requirements and conditions customary in this type of transaction.
Founded in 1969, Mineração Taboca is the largest tin producer in Brazil, having contributed over a third of the country’s refined tin production in 2023 at 5,385 t, and is Brazil’s only fully integrated tin producer.
Minsur acquired Taboca from Paranapanema Group in 2008 following financial problems at Paranapanema. The combined production from Minsur’s Peruvian assets and Taboca intermittently made the company the second largest producer of refined tin alongside PT Timah.
The Pitinga mine in the Amazon is the world’s largest tin resource by tin content at 558,000 t contained Sn from 522.1 Mt at 0.107% Sn, and also holds significant resources of niobium and tantalum. At the end of 2023, Minsur reported tin reserves at Pitinga as 279,000 t contained Sn, expected to maintain production for at least thirty years.
Since Minsur’s takeover of Taboca, recovery at Pitinga has steadily increased and the mine’s output is likely to increase in future. The Pirapora smelter near Sao Paolo, which produces the LME brand MAMORE at a purity of 99.97% Sn, has a capacity of 16,000 tpa.
Bloomberg reports Minsur is selling the company for US$340 million.
In a statement to its website, Mineração Taboca said that “This new moment is strategic and constitutes a growth opportunity for [the company], as it will allow it to have access to new technologies to become more competitive and expand its vision and production capacity.”
“Amid these changes, Mineração Taboca reaffirms that its purpose and values remain the same, as well as its commitment to transparency, ethics and excellence in serving its stakeholders.”
Our view: The sale of Mineração Taboca to CNMC marks a significant step in the increasing dominance of Chinese companies in the tin market. Without its Brazil assets, Minsur remains the world’s second largest producer of refined tin and the changes may enable the company to increase its focus on its major exploration project at Nazareth, Peru—one of the largest new mine supply projects by capacity.
Minsur S.A. is a member of the International Tin Association.
