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Events/Price shock · 1985

International Tin Council collapse

Price shock, 24 October 1985, United Kingdom.

What happened

The International Tin Agreement ran out of money and stopped market support on 24 October 1985, having borrowed over 900 million pounds. The London Metal Exchange suspended tin trading and the tin price fell to about half its previous level.1,2,3

Why it matters

It ended a long-running producer and consumer agreement.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. International Tin Council collapse

    It ended a long-running producer and consumer agreement.1,2,3

  2. Arica-La Paz railway service ends

    The line, handed over in May 1913, stopped running after 92 years.4,5

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Where next

Mines

An example ofGeevor Tin MineGeevor closed in 1990, five years after the tin agreement ran out of money.1An example ofSouth Crofty mineThe last Cornish tin mine, South Crofty, closed in 1998.1

Events

Came out ofBolivia nationalises the tin minesState tin since 1952 met the 1985 crash, when the tin price fell to about half.1

Sources

  1. Tin written answer, 29 October 1985 UK Parliament (Hansard)
  2. The Collapse of Tin: Restructuring a Failed Commodity Agreement (abstract) American Journal of International Law (Cambridge University Press)
  3. London (item Q84), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. La historia del ferrocarril de Arica a La Paz Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
  5. Wikidata item Q2203 (Arica)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Dolcoath tin mine, Camborne, Cornwall: miners in a mine shaft, standing on wooden platforms connected by ladders. Photograph by J. C. Burrow, 1890/1910., Burrow, J. C., 1852-1914 (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).