With recent exploration work at Alphamin Resources’ (TSXV: AFM) Bisie complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) proving that there is a lot more tin in the ground, Bisie is set to become a key player in the future supply of the silvery metal thought to have lost its shine only a few years ago.
The reason for tin’s resurgence could be that the lines between the virtual world and human existence are becoming more blurred, which is hard to believe. But, believe it or not, tin runs like a thin thread between the interface of these two worlds, gluing them together where they’ve already converged.
If this sounds too much like science fiction, go ahead and ask ChatGPT itself. Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), renewable energy, and robotics are here to stay. ChatGPT, Machine Learning, and automation will still be with us 50 years from now, as will tin.
Tin’s use in the manufacturing of new technology and its application as solder in AI and robotics, is why the world is watching developments at the Bisie complex in the DRC with such interest.
That, and because of China’s stranglehold over the supply chain of not only tin but all the other rare and critical metals needed in this converging world of AI and human cognisance.
Steady supply of tin needed
Currently, China is by far the world’s biggest market for tin and the largest producing country, accounting for more than 40% of the world’s refined tin consumption and production.
In a multipolar (human) world where suspicion reigns supreme, geopolitical risk is forcing countries and multinational companies to diversify current supply chains. Africa, with its multitude of rich natural resources, has therefore become a focal point, as has Alphamin’s Bisie tin mine.
A steady future supply of critical minerals and metals like tin, is essential for the development of new technologies that are key in the emerging green economy, measures to counteract climate change, and military defense i.e. weapons.
Although ChatGTP itself cannot positively confirm that its future existence depends on the discovery of more tin resources (I asked it), or that it exists because of tin, it does admit that tin plays an important role in its functioning but, it says: “There are many other materials (with tin) that are important, too.”
Thus, in a new world where we have already put a lot of time and effort into developing new technology, high-grade tin resources, and other critical minerals are becoming major discussion points whenever they are discovered.
Bisie: a geological anomaly
Any tin deposit with grades higher than 1%, starts to get geologists excited. The sad reality is that in the last decade, very few new tin projects have been developed, and none with grades even close to Bisie’s 4.5%. There is no doubt that Alphamin’s high grade is a complete anomaly.
Development at Mpama South will expand production. Future exploration will extend Life of Mine (LOM) far beyond the current 10 years, with ongoing exploration programs bound to increase its reserves further.
Mpama South has become increasingly important in the context of potential deficits and amidst supply chain uncertainties, currently, and in the future.
The Mpama South project is expected to increase Bisie’s combined tin production from about 12,000 tonnes to approximately 20,000 per annum. To date, about 2,448m of underground development at Mpama South has been completed of which 988m was achieved in Q3 2023 (Q2: 603m).
Alphamin expects that close to 1,200m of new development will have taken place at Mpama South towards the end of December, with the commissioning of the new processing plant taking place in January / February 2024.
The role of tin in AI
The news about progress at Mpama South comes at a time of renewed optimism about tin’s future and the role it will play in AI and future technologies. Tin’s value in renewable energy like wind turbines and solar panels is well-known, less so its importance in the world of AI, robotics, and the IoT.
In the context of AI, important elements and components include software frameworks, algorithms, hardware architectures, and data. Key hardware components for AI include processors, GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), and specialized AI accelerators.
The main growth driver in this sector is increased demand for the manufacturing of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). GPUs began as tools for rendering graphics and powering AI, but they could evolve into something much more powerful in the future.
Currently, GPUs are specialized data processors that are necessary for machine learning, video editing, and gaming. They are mostly used in computers and data centers. Tin is used as solder and a protective coating to avoid corrosion of the panels within the printed circuit boards of the GPU.
According to Harsh Chauhan at The Motley Fool, demand for GPUs is growing at an annual pace of 23.5%, while demand for tin in this application is expected to increase significantly until the end of the decade.
ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, is a prime example of the role of GPUs in AI. Open AI is the most prominent player in the AI market, however, companies like Alibaba, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, Apple, and Baidu have all begun work on creating their own versions, and it is anticipated that many new companies will be formed to tap into this market.
The key characteristics and uses of GPUs include, amongst others, parallel processing, graphic rendering, compute workloads, data parallelism, and highly parallel architecture.
In addition, GPUs have become integral to the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Many machine learning frameworks and algorithms, especially those involving deep learning, benefit from the parallel processing power of GPUs. Training neural networks, a computationally intensive task, is significantly accelerated with GPU acceleration.
NVIDIA and AMD are two major manufacturers of GPUs, with NVIDIA being particularly prominent in the field of AI and deep learning due to its CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) platform. As technology advances, GPUs continue to play a crucial role in accelerating various computational workloads, making them essential components in many high-performance computing systems.
Invest in the future
So, indirectly, through investing in tin, you are investing in a future world where tin could possibly take center stage as the catalyst for technological innovation and renewable energy, and could arguably become the backbone of an interconnected world.
As the boundaries between reality and the virtual world continue to dissolve, yet AI is still in its infancy. Whether future developments and new technology will demand more tin, remains to be seen. However, for at least the next decade or longer, while the use of GPUs becomes more significant and demand for renewable energy sources continue to spike, tin will remain vague.