Bolivia's Bit

There is no satisfactory substitute for tin. It is a basic ingredient of tin cans, solder, bronze, collapsible tubes, foil, galvanized iron, a hundred other items. This week the U.S. took a big step toward fattening its thin stockpile of the metal.

The Metals Reserve Company was ready to sign a contract, calling for delivery of 17,600 long tons of tin concentrates, with second-string Tin King Mauricio Hochschild and all the other Bolivian tin men except the biggest operator of them all, Simon Patino, who is solidly tied up with Britain.

Terms of the agreement: 1) a base price of 62 1/2-c- a lb.; 2) a retroactive bonus of 1-c- a lb. from Jan. 1 through June 30 and 3-c- a lb. from July until the end of the year, provided annual production exceeds 17,600 long tons.

The tonnage, roughly a quarter of expected U.S. consumption for 1946, was a prize few other countries wanted. The ore is low grade, needs special smelting to produce pig tin. But the U.S. has just such a smelter at Texas City, Texas. The U.S. problem was not refining the ore, but getting more of it.

There is little chance that Bolivia will exceed the 17,600 tons agreed upon. Reason: rising labor costs (up from a prewar 27-c- per-man-per-day to $2) will force some mines operating on a low profit margin to remain closed. So, with a low tin yield coming in from the rich Far Eastern mines, the CPA expects a short tin supply until 1949.

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