Cassiterite in Venezuela: Where It Is and Who Mines It

Venezuela’s cassiterite — the main ore of tin — is found in the south of the country: in Cedeño municipality in Bolívar state and in Atures, Alto Orinoco and Autana municipalities in Amazonas state, according to geological studies cited by the Observatorio sur de Venezuela, an environmental watchdog. Since October 2024, state-owned Corporación Venezolana de Minería (CVM) has held exclusive rights to mine it in Block 003 of the Orinoco Mining Arc. CVM said it exported 833 metric tons that year, with China as the announced destination. There are no official production or reserve figures.

For what cassiterite is and what tin is used for, see what is cassiterite.

Where is cassiterite found in Venezuela?

• Cedeño municipality, Bolívar state. At the Los Pijiguaos bauxite mines, the Observatorio’s satellite images showed 10 hectares of newly cleared ground between January and October 2023, coinciding with reports of cassiterite mining there. Miners evicted from Yapacana reportedly moved to Las Piedritas in the same parish.
• Block 003 of the Orinoco Mining Arc, the area the government assigned to CVM in 2024; the Observatorio places it in Bolívar state.
• Amazonas state: Atures, Alto Orinoco and Autana municipalities. In Autana, cassiterite was being extracted at the Uwottuja community of Pendare on the Sipapo River, per the Observatorio.

See also the Orinoco Mining Arc.

Who mines cassiterite in Venezuela?

CVM, by government decision. On October 2, 2024, Nicolás Maduro signed an “exclusive right” for CVM to explore, mine and export cassiterite and its by-products in Block 003. That day a 54-metric-ton shipment bound for China was inspected at the port of La Guaira. The government said the ore would be sold to China and the BRICS countries, per Banca y Negocios. CVM’s president, José Moreno Martínez, said Indigenous communities allied with the company haul the ore.

How much cassiterite does Venezuela produce?

• Exports: 833 metric tons in 2024 through early October, according to CVM’s president — a government figure with no independent customs data behind it.
• Production and reserves: no public figures. The U.S. Geological Survey’s 2026 tin report does not list Venezuela as a producer.

For scale, world mine output of tin was about 290,000 metric tons in 2025, led by China (71,000) and Indonesia (61,000), per the USGS. See the world’s main cassiterite deposits.

Illegal cassiterite mining

The Observatorio documented in 2024:

• Mining has been banned in Amazonas state since 1989 (Decree 269), yet cassiterite was being extracted and moved around National Guard checkpoints.
• In May 2024, 12 people were arrested at Picatonal on the Caicara–Puerto Ayacucho road with more than 800 kg of cassiterite.
• In Pacaraima, Brazil, on the border, a source heard 80 metric tons offered at $14.50 per kilo in August 2024.

Is cassiterite still a strategic mineral?

• 2021: Decree 4,598 (Official Gazette No. 42,230, October 8, 2021) declared cassiterite a strategic mineral reserved to the executive, along with nickel, rhodium, titanium and rare earths.
• 2026: the Organic Mining Law, published in Official Gazette No. 7,020 Extraordinary on April 16, 2026, repealed the 1999 mining law and the 2015 law reserving gold and other strategic minerals to the state.
• Under Article 34 of the new law, the president can declare minerals strategic by decree — by category, mine or region — and the state can reserve their exploitation. Existing rights holders keep their rights.

The sources reviewed show no new decree on cassiterite under the 2026 law.

What is not known

• How much cassiterite Venezuela has — there is no public reserve inventory.
• Production and exports in 2025 and 2026 — the latest official figure is from 2024.
• Whether cassiterite remains reserved to the state under the 2026 law, and what happens to CVM’s exclusive right.

How cassiterite becomes tin: extraction and refining. Venezuela’s other minerals: important minerals of Venezuela.