Known to the ancients. Most of the world's supply comes from Malaya, Bolivia, Indonesia, Zaire, Thailand, and Nigeria. The U.S. produces almost none, although occurrences have been found in Alaska and California.
Tin is obtained by reducing the ore with coal in a reverberatory furnace.
Ordinary tin is a silver-white metal, is malleable, somewhat ductile, and has a highly crystalline structure. The element has two allotropic forms at normal pressure. On warming, gray, or alpha tin, with a cubic structure, changes at 13.2C into white, or beta tin, the ordinary form of the metal. White tin has a tetragonal structure. When tin is cooled below 13.2C, it changes slowly from white to gray.