Some mystery investor buying up tin

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**genotype**

According to the Telegraph, some mystery investor is buying up all the tin, which is driving up costs. I think it's GW, preparing to release and all-metal army consisting entirely of Chaos Dwarfs. Yet another price spike for metal minis?

**George Spiggott**

"Woot! Excuse for a price hike." - Tom Kirby

**grizgrin**

I would guess China.

**Necros**

My bro in law who's all into stocks and stuff was telling me how Toyota owns most of the copper mines in asia if not the world because they want it for batteries and fuel cells and stuff. If tin goes into them too, I'd bet it was a car and/or oil company

**SagesStone**

Doesn't GW use pewter for the metal models? Or is that just something they want you to believe?

**warboss**

n0t_u wrote:Doesn't GW use pewter for the metal models? Or is that just something they want you to believe?

pewter is an alloy of mostly tin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewter

**SagesStone**

I guess I don't know much about pewter then

**Howard A Treesong**

GW and other companies should go back to casting with lead. :p

**Kilkrazy**

They had to stop that after the wave of kiddy poisoning in the late 80s.

**Mattlov**

Kilkrazy wrote:They had to stop that after the wave of kiddy poisoning in the late 80s.

Didn't stop Reaper from going bck to lead for a line of minis.

No reason you can't use lead. Kids shouldn't be messing with minis anyway, and you shouldn't have them (minis OR kids) in a position to do so. Problem solved, just by being a mildly intelligent parent.

And if the kid gets sick and dies, it's easy to make more.

**Osbad**

This kind of thing will happen more and more. I read somewhere that there isn't enough iron ore in the earth to make the cars needed if China were to have the same car:household ratio as America does.

Before the recent economic crash commodities were getting sucked up left right and centre by Asian companies - there are Chinese companies that own entire mountain ranges in South America just to secure their metal ore streams. As the West spirals down into bankruptcy and China becomes the strongest economy, our future looks none too bright. Of course if you were a Chinese or Indian peasant subsisting on a handful of rice a day, seeing your kids move to the cities to earn undeard of salaries in the booming factories, your perspectives may be somewhat different...!

**JOHIRA**

Osbad wrote:I read somewhere that there isn't enough iron ore in the earth to make the cars needed if China were to have the same car:household ratio as America does.

The Earth is about 1/3rd iron. There are a lot of Chinese, but I suspect there are not THAT many Chinese.

Back on topic, surely miniatures are such a niche market that for all intents and purposes they are completely irrelevant to commodities prices. I bet GW could switch its entire production on all lines to pewter miniatures and it wouldn't even register as a blip on the world-wide tin market.

**Lordhat**

JOHIRA wrote:
Osbad wrote:I read somewhere that there isn't enough iron ore in the earth to make the cars needed if China were to have the same car:household ratio as America does.

The Earth is about 1/3rd iron. There are a lot of Chinese, but I suspect there are not THAT many Chinese.

But of that 1/3, how much is obtainable?

www.seismo.unr.edu wrote:

(J. Louie) Composition, and mechanical properties, vary widely within the earth. The differentiation of the earth reflects the processes of differentiation that occurred with the formation of the solar system 5.5 billion years ago. The Sun holds 95% of the mass of the solar system, and the early solar nebula was thus mostly hydrogen and helium. As the nebula cooled, minor constituents condensed out of the nebula, starting with the heavier and more refractory (Ni, Fe), and ending with the lighter and more volatile (water, methane).

The earth continues to differentiate since its accretion, with the result that most Fe has sunk to the core, while Fe, Mg silicates compose the mantle. The compositions of the core and inner core can be surmised from their seismic wave velocities because experimental data has been taken on core materials at the enormous pressures and temperatures present in the core. Work to improve military armor led to the development of gas-driven guns capable of firing a slug at velocities up to 7 km/s. On impact to a sample, the slug produces shock waves and radiance from the core-like pressures and temperatures that can be measured for a few nanoseconds before the apparatus flies apart.

**rogueeyes**

If there becomes a need for Iron Ore then they will find a way to get more. That's how simple it is. It's only a matter of time before we start mining asteroids because we need more raw materials to build who knows what. Besides we have quite a few other planets as well that we can head off to after we mine this one dry.

**BOSS_PIMPALOTZ**

rogueeyes wrote:If there becomes a need for Iron Ore then they will find a way to get more. That's how simple it is. It's only a matter of time before we start mining asteroids because we need more raw materials to build who knows what. Besides we have quite a few other planets as well that we can head off to after we mine this one dry.

Quite true if the world stops looking down and starts looking up and invests in space travel how do they expect us to get to these mineral rich Asteroids put on a respirator and breaststroke to the heavens.

**Snord**

It's a sign of things to come. It says it's a hedge fund, so it may just be someone trying to make a killing. But China's appetite for fossil fuel and raw materials is growing exponentially, and it's positioning itself ahead of increasing shortages of these kinds of materials - oil being the big one - so you never know if Chinese interests are behind something like this. And of course China already owns a big chunks of America's property market, although it's not quite so happy about that at the moment.

**TBD**

If people would just stop breeding like cockroaches and/or started living responsible lives instead of the ignorant and selfish consuming consuming consuming, then there wouldn't be any shortages, climate shifts or other such problems.

**H.B.M.C.**

You're not about to go all Luddite on us, are you TBD?

**Necros**

TBD wrote:If people would just stop breeding like cockroaches and/or started living responsible lives instead of the ignorant and selfish consuming consuming consuming, then there wouldn't be any shortages, climate shifts or other such problems.

The problem with that is 99.999999287842% of the people in the world only care about themselves and/or their immediate family and are too stubborn or short sighted to waste their time thinking about how their life could effect someone 8000 miles away

**Shotgun**

I heard about the same thing happening in the frozen concentrated orange juice market. My guess is once the crop report comes out, the price will plummet.

And you will find the chief conspirator in a monkey suit on a slow boat to Africa.

*nods sagely*

**Prodigalson**

It's the Cadmium in the paint that will kill ya, don't like your brushes, boys and girls.

**warboss**

i heard about the tin shortage on the radio a while back and just figured HBMC was recasting his IG force including superheavies to all metal.

**Howard A Treesong**

Lordhat wrote:
But of that 1/3, how much is obtainable?

Enough to last virtually forever. Unlike most metal, the supply of iron is endless. According to my dad, who worked in the steel industy, it was so cheap to buy the ore they didn't worry too much about recycling waste material. We'll have run into trouble with a lot of other resources long before iron becomes scarce.

**the_Armyman**

Shotgun wrote:I heard about the same thing happening in the frozen concentrated orange juice market. My guess is once the crop report comes out, the price will plummet.

And you will find the chief conspirator in a monkey suit on a slow boat to Africa.

*nods sagely*

A single, crisp dollar bill for the obscure reference!

Not to get too far off-topic, but I love it when the West is gobbling up resources and "destroying the planet," it's somehow evil and reprehensible. But when China and India do it, they're simply investing in their burngeoning economies and bettering their children's lives.

**Necros**

Next thing you know the US military is gonna send specialer than special ops teams out to collect little bitz of meteors so they can corner the market on adamantium.

**MagickalMemories**

Prodigalson wrote:It's the Cadmium in the paint that will kill ya, don't like your brushes, boys and girls.

I don't.

I hate mine with a fiery intensity.

I curse them roundly every time they make a faulty brush stroke.

Eric

**Scottywan82**

H.B.M.C. wrote:You're not about to go all Luddite on us, are you TBD?

Shoes in looms! Shoes in looms!

**ShumaGorath**

There aren't enough gamers on the planet for a miniatures company to make a large dent in the tin supply.

**grizgrin**

JOHIRA wrote:... I bet GW could switch its entire production on all lines to pewter miniatures and it wouldn't even register as a blip on the world-wide tin market.

And you would be most correct. Try electronics for the major users of tin.

H.B.M.C. wrote:You're not about to go all Luddite on us, are you TBD?

Way too late for the "about" part there, HBMC.

Shotgun wrote:I heard about the same thing happening in the frozen concentrated orange juice market. My guess is once the crop report comes out, the price will plummet.

And you will find the chief conspirator in a monkey suit on a slow boat to Africa.

*nods sagely*

But will it be in time for margin call. Sell the seats! Sell the seats!

Howard A Treesong wrote:
Lordhat wrote:
But of that 1/3, how much is obtainable?

Enough to last virtually forever. Unlike most metal, the supply of iron is endless. According to my dad, who worked in the steel industy, it was so cheap to buy the ore they didn't worry too much about recycling waste material. We'll have run into trouble with a lot of other resources long before iron becomes scarce.

Tell that to China as they further their negotiations with the Australians. Personally I hope the Aussies rape 'em, so long as it doesn't lead to another South East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Which damn near washed Oz off the map last time it hit hit the spin cycle.

**Miguelsan**

Dear Clients,

Due to the unexpected rise of tin GW will have to raise prices in the metal blisters starting 01-01-2009. New price bands will start at 20$ for a single figure blister. So start coughing up the money you own us since January, the Board wants the corporate jets for yesterday.

Sincerely.

GW