(AECSD) Consolidated Tin gets test results from Gillian

Factiva: "Consolidated Tin Mines (ASX:CSD) has results of metallurgical test work at the Gillian project in north Queensland which confirm the strong tin and iron potential of the project area.

The Gillian project is part of Consolidated Tin's wider Mt Garnet project area."

Timah cuts tin output further, by as much as 23%

Factiva: "PT Timah, the world's second largest tin producer, said it may further cut 2008 tin production to 45,000-48,000 tonnes on low tin prices. This would reduce the Indonesian company's tin output by as much as 23% from last year, and follows Timah's warning in August that its tin output might fall to 50,000 tonnes (MB Aug 26). 'We can produce more if we want to. We still have tin ore stocked up,' said Timah spokesman Abrun Abubakar. But falling tin prices make it not very profitable to produce very much, he said"

TIN EXPLORATION: Final holes at Mount Pleasant reach 1.11% Sn and 242 g/t In

Factiva: "Final assays have been received from the Mount Pleasant mine property 80 km south of Fredericton, reported owner-operator ADEX MINING of Toronto. The company says the results confirm that both the Deep Tin and North Adit sub-zones of the North zone remain open laterally in several directions.

The best assay was 1.11% Sn"

Laos to revoke licenses of Vietnam miners

Intellasia: "COECO Minerals Development Co will have two mining project certificates revoked after the company failed to find any minerals at a tin and zinc mine in Houaphan Province and a lead mine in Bolikhamsai Province, said the Lao government."

Indonesia`s tin islands pay the price for centuries of unregulated mining

Mineweb: "Indonesia's government has said it will set an annual tin production quota of 100,000 tonnes from next year in a bid to reduce environmental degradation in the main tin-mining areas. But the situation on the ground is often murky"

The scale of the environmental damage on the Bangka-Belitung islands can be most clearly seen from the air, revealing a lunar landscape of craters and hundreds of highly acidic, turquoise lakes created by centuries of largely unregulated tin mining.

Efforts in recent years to control illegal mining on the islands have reverberated thousands of miles away by spooking world markets for tin in global financial centres such as London.

"We will continue to clamp down as long as there are violations," said Iskandar Hasan, Bangka-Belitung's police chief, adding that mining was still going on in prohibited areas such as protected forests in the province of about 1 million people

Indonesia small tin smelters to shut down

Factiva: "Indonesia's tin-producing Bangka-Belitung islands have asked small smelters to stop operating as falling prices have cut margins of smelters and small miners, the governor of the islands said on Tuesday."

When asked about an acceptable tin price level for smelters to resume operations, Ali said between $14,000-$15,000 a tonne.

About 40 percent of the islands' workforce is involved in tin mining. Twelve small smelters with export permits have agreed to shut operations at least until January 2009, Ali said. There are 19 smelters that are allowed to export the metal, including PT Timah and PT Koba Tin.

Atomic pen achieves invisible victory

Engadget: "Putting the world's tiniest book to shame -- not to mention the Torah-inscribed grain of rice -- a research team at Osaka University has 'written' the letters 'Si' using an atomic pen that interchanges silicon and tin atoms, enabling those who have the time, resources, and patience to manipulate said atoms one by one. The results are a diminutive 2 x 2 nm (or 40,000 times smaller than a strand of hair) which took about an hour and a half to complete.

Tributyl Tin May be Added to UN PIC List

Factiva: "Ministers and officials from over 120 governments will meet in Rome next week to decide whether to add two pesticides - endosulfan and tributyl tin compounds - and the industrial chemical chrysotile asbestos to a trade watch list that already contains 39 hazardous substances."

Indonesian tin consortium stops production

Factiva: "An Indonesia tin consortium producing a combined 3,000-4,000 tpm of tin has stopped production on low tin prices. 'We stopped getting tin ore supply for smelting activities at the beginning of the month,' said Patris Lumumba, director of the consortium, Bangka-Belitung Timah Sejahtera (BBTS) in Bangka-Belitung province, the country's tin-producing base. All seven BBTS smelters have closed down, after using up their ore stocks, he said. 'Prices are simply unprofitable at the moment,' he added."