METALS-Shanghai tin prices jump after Alphamin halts mining in Congo

SHANGHAI, March 14 (Reuters) - Tin prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) advanced on Friday as Alphamin Resources AFM.V halted mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Alphamin Resources said on Thursday that activity at the Bisie tin mine in Congo's North Kivu had been paused "after insurgent militant groups have recently advanced westward in the direction of the mine's location in the DRC occupying the towns of Nyabiondo".

Shanghai's most active tin contract SSNcv1 jumped 8.6% to 287,800 yuan ($39,793.15) a metric ton on Friday, as of 0716 GMT, after hitting the upper limit of 10% in Asia morning trade.

Benchmark three-month tin prices CMSN3 on the London Metals Exchange rose 1.7% to $36,500 a ton.

"Bisie tin mine is the world's third-largest tin mine, contributing to 6% of the world's tin ores in 2024," Wang Weiwei, an analyst at Yide Futures, said in a note.

Even as Myanmar's Wa state is looking into restarting its mining operations, Wang expects doesn't see any significant increase in tin supply stemming from this area to be evident until May 2025.

"We are closely monitoring the news about militancy in Congo, given its significant role as a global supplier of tin," a base metals trader said.

LME copper CMCU3 was up 0.6% at $9,845 a ton, LME aluminium CMAL3 was down 0.2% at $2,698.5 a ton, lead CMPB3 gained 0.8% to $2,088, zinc CMZN3 rose 0.3% to $2,970 and nickel CMNI3 gained 0.6% to $16,605.

SHFE copper SCFcv1 jumped 1% to 80,360 yuan a metric ton, SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 was flat at 20,990 yuan a ton, zinc SZNcv1 added 0.2% to 24,140 yuan, lead SPBcv1 jumped 0.9% to 17,725 yuan and nickel SNIcv1 added 0.1% to 133,660 yuan.

($1 = 7.2324 Chinese yuan renminbi)

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