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Occurrence and Production of Tin
Occurrence
This metal is a relatively scarce element with an abundance in the Earth's crust of about 2 ppm, compared with 94 ppm for zinc, 63 ppm for copper, and 12 ppm for lead.
Tin is commonly found in the mineral cassiterite (SnO2), reduction of this with buring coal results in the metal, and was probably how tin was made by the ancients.
SnO2 + 2C Sn + 2CO
Although cassiterite (SnO2) is the only commerically important source of tin small quantities of tin are recovered from complex sulfides such as stannite, cylindrite, franckeite, canfieldite, and teallite.