Yunnan Tin net profits surge 36% in 2025
The world’s largest producer of refined tin, Yunnan Tin Co, has announced net profits surged 36.1% in 2025 to RMB 1.966 billion (approximately US$288 million). The Chinese state-owned producer reported operating income of RMB 43.534 billion (approximately US$6.4 billion) in 2025, up 3.7% from the previous year. Tin ingot sales totalled RMB 19.318 billion (approximately US$2.8 billion), or 44% of the company’s operating income, having risen 31.2% from 2024.
Management attributed this to the combination of rising product prices and increased output. The average China spot market tin price was 10.1% higher in 2025 than in 2024.
Operating costs for the tin business totalled RMB 17.107 billion (approximately US$2.5 billion), up 31.8% year-on-year. This represented a unit cost of US$28,991 per tonne refined tin produced, excluding by-product credits. The company’s overall operating costs rose 3.8% to RMB 38.524 billion (approximately US$5.7 billion).
Refined tin production rose 9.9% to 86,233 tonnes, giving the company a global market share of 23%.
In addition, Yunnan Tin produced 130,100 tonnes of copper, 133,400 tonnes of zinc, 1,236 tonnes of lead, 119 tonnes of indium, 1,260 kg of gold, and 134 tonnes of silver.
The company reported headwinds of raw material shortages, declining processing fees, and wide fluctuations in non-ferrous metal prices, but remained resilient as the company shifts focus towards consolidating resource security capabilities.
The company’s own mining operations saw a 2.0% increase in tin output, reaching 31,788 tonnes of contained tin. Mining of copper fell 9.3% and mining of zinc rose 6.1% in 2025. Yunnan Tin attributed this increase to improvements in production efficiency at its mining operations.
Yunnan Tin also has recycling operations to produce secondary refined tin and purchases tin concentrates from domestic and overseas suppliers. The company was 28.5% self-sufficient for its refined tin supply chain in 2025.
Yunnan Tin reported growth in its tin reserves to a total of 613,800 tonnes across its four mines, representing an increase of 2.2% from the previous year. The company holds the largest tin reserve base of any company globally.
The company invested a total of RMB 112 million (approximately US$16.4 million) on exploration across its tin, copper, zinc, iron ore, tungsten, lead, and silver assets. The company also highlighted ongoing progress on processing upgrades at its Datun tin mine and feasibility studies into the potential recovery of tin from its Laochang tailings pond.
Looking ahead to 2026, the company remains bullish on industry profitability, citing consumption-boosting ‘trade-in’ policies, supportive fiscal policy, and rapid growth of aerospace, new energy, and AI technologies. The company cited potential challenges of global economic uncertainty, raw material unavailability, and anti-involution measures in the Chinese PV industry.
Yunnan Tin reaffirmed its goal of improving supply security through expanding its own resources, improving processing efficiencies, and through taking “multiple steps to enhance its control over mineral resources globally, primarily tin”.
