Tin ore
Tin ore is a rock that contains tin, commonly in the form of an oxide.
Natural sources
Cassiterite
A tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque. It was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history. It is still the most important source of tin today.
Occurance
Most sources of cassiterite today are found in alluvial (loose sediment deposited by water) deposits.
Modern-day, most of the worlds cassiterite is mined in:
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Bolivia
- Nigeria
- Myanmar
- Thailand
- China
Smelting
1. Crushing and concentrating the ore
Crush the ore. Wash it to remove lighter impurities. Use something like a shaking table or sluice to remove the ore from the other rocks, because cassiterite is dense.
2. Roasting (if needed)
If the ore contains sulfur or arsenic, roast it in air to remove the impurities by turning them into gases. If the ore is pure this step bay be skipped.
3. Smelting
Heat it with some form of carbon, such as coke or charcoal, to around 1200-1300 °C (220-2370 °F).
4. Collection
The molten tin sinks to the bottom of the furnace and can be tapped off.
References
| This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Cassiterite, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors). | 
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