Britain’s last tin mines will shut down by Aug. 1.
Losses resulting from the collapse of world tin prices were cited by Rio Tinto-Zinc Corp. for the closure. The three mines closing in the southwest county of Cornwall will mean 1,000 lost mining jobs in a region where unemployment is running at 25%. Tin has been mined in Cornwall for 2,000 years, and in 1871 the industry employed 60,000 people. The International Tin Council, which maintained world tin prices to protect producers from price fluctuations, collapsed in October when it ran out of cash to buy tin for buffer stocks.
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