Brazilian tin-producing company, White Solder, has been accused of acquiring a mineral illegally mined in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon. White Solder has supplied hundreds of metric tons of tin to companies with U.S. Department of Defense contracts, according to an investigation by Repórter Brasil.
White Solder, which describes itself as one of the world’s largest tin producers, supplied at least 525 metric tons of tin to U.S.-based Indium Corporation between May 2023 and August 2025, according to records analyzed by Repórter Brasil. Indium Corporation in turn supplied solder to Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor that manufactures military technologies including radar and precision-guided missiles.
White Solder also reportedly supplied at least 2,400 metric tons of tin to Nathan Trotter, a U.S. manufacturer of tin and solder alloys between 2021 and 2025. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Nathan Trotter a $19 million contract to build a tin smelting, refining and recycling facility in Pennsylvania, Repórter Brasil reported.
According to a release from the Department of Defense, the investment was intended to counter, “Chinese efforts to monopolize the global supply, as well as mitigate smelting supply chain vulnerabilities.”
“The US’s expanding need for raw materials to underpin its military will lead to further harms associated with mining, both illegal and legal unless safeguards and due diligence are put in place and followed,” Emily Iona Stewart, head of policy and advocacy with the U.K.-based NGO Global Witness, told Repórter Brasil.
In August 2026, a Brazilian federal court accepted charges of money laundering and illegal mining against White Solder filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The prosecutors allege that White Solder paid 166 million Brazilian reais ($32.5 million) to Coopertin, a tin producer cooperative, which was accused of disguising the origin of more than 525 tons of cassiterite illegally extracted from Yanomami territory between 2021 and 2022. Cassiterite is the raw material used to make tin, which functions as a solder for some technologies.
Repórter Brasil published a separate report alleging that while White Solder claimed to have purchased more than 2,300 metric tons of cassiterite from two authorized areas in the Brazilian state of Rondônia between 2020 and 2025. However, satellite imagery, aerial surveys and field investigations found no evidence of such mining activity. Greenpeace Brasil, which collaborated on the investigation, described the sites as “ghost mines,” that could potentially be used to disguise the origin of minerals illegally extracted elsewhere.
Indium Corporation told Repórter Brasil that White Solder met the criteria of the Responsible Minerals Initiative when it supplied the company with the metal. Indium did not say if White Solder is still a supplier.
White Solder, Nathan Trotter, Coopertin, Raytheon and the U.S. Department of Defense did not respond to Repórter Brasil’s questions.
Read the full Repórter Brasil here.
Banner image: Aerial view of a mining operation in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. Image courtesy of Valentina Ricardo/Greenpeace.
