Producer
EM Vinto
State-owned Bolivian tin smelter (nationalized 2007; operated under COMIBOL); produced 12,700 MT refined tin in 2024 (~3% global share), recovering from a 2023 dip to ~10,000 MT. Smelts both domestic Bolivian concentrates from artisanal/small-scale miners and some imported Peruvian feed. Bolivia accounts for 33% of US refined tin imports (2024). Located in Oruro on the Altiplano — one of the highest-altitude industrial smelters in the world.
1
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
1
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
1 input EM Vinto supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something EM Vinto makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Refined Tin Smelting
85%Tin Alloys & Byproducts
15%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2025
EM Vinto, Bolivia's state-owned tin smelter at 3,706 m altitude in Oruro, is the source of 33% of US refined tin imports — making a state-nationalized enterprise in one of the world's most politically volatile countries a critical input for US food can production via the electrolytic tinplate supply chain. Bolivia nationalized EM Vinto in 2007 from Glencore. The US has no strategic tin reserve. A Bolivian export restriction or political rupture analogous to Mexico's lithium nationalization would cut off one-third of US refined tin supply with no rapid domestic substitute.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) ↗Origin2023
EM Vinto traces to Bolivia's long tin mining tradition — the Bolivian Altiplano has been mined for silver (Potosí, 1545) and tin for centuries. The Vinto smelter was built in the late 1960s-70s as Bolivia sought to add value to its tin ore by smelting domestically rather than exporting raw concentrate. The facility changed ownership multiple times through Bolivia's political cycles: nationalized, privatized, and renationalized. In February 2007, Bolivia's new president Evo Morales nationalized the Vinto smelter from Glencore (which had operated it under Allied Deals/Comsur) as part of his broader resource nationalization campaign. The nationalization was delivered via executive decree and completed without compensation settlement for years. EM Vinto is now operated under COMIBOL (Corporación Minera de Bolivia), the state mining company, and is Bolivia's primary export-oriented processing facility for tin.
Corporación Minera de Bolivia (COMIBOL) ↗