International Business the Tin Market

The Tin Gun

If someone asked me what is worth killing for, The only reason I would be able to think of would be to protect the people I love. I would think that most people would never kill for anything less. However, people kill others every day for money, drugs, cars, or out of pure hatred. But I would never think that companies as well known as Apple and Sony would be involved in the death of an average of one person a week. I feel that these companies are killing with a tin gun.

Tin is a major component of most electronics it is in all of our phones, tablets, TVs, and laptops. Tin is used to solder wires and components together. It is the process of getting this tin that is the killer. Most tin comes from mines in Indonesia, but these mines are nothing like a mine that you would fine in the United States.

The mine on the left is a Gold mine in the U.S the sides of the mine are staggered this prevents landslides the mining is also done completely by mining equipment such as dump trucks and excavators. The mine on the right is located on Bangka Island in Indonesia. The walls of the mine are near vertical and there are no steps to prevent a landslide; in fact it rains a lot of the time at the mines which makes it so unstable. It is not if a landslide will take place, it is when will it and when it does happen there is no heavy digging equipment that the miners are inside of, because most of the mining is done by hand! The miners are as young as fifteen years old and have no protection most do not even have shoes.

Working in a tin mine is pretty much a death sentence in my opinion and the only reason the miners do it is for a lousy five dollars a day that’s it. These people are risking their lives for five dollars a day. Many times mining is the only way that a person can support their family so the fact that they may not come home one day could easily lead to starvation and even worse. Most miners do not even make it to the hospital after an accident...