BRASÍLIA, September 24 — A Brazilian tin producer accused of buying illegally mined cassiterite from the Yanomami Indigenous Territory supplied hundreds of metric tons of tin to U.S. companies holding 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, records analyzed by Repórter Brasil show.
Indium Corporation in turn supplied solder to Raytheon, the major U.S. defense contractor that manufactures military technologies including radar and precision-guided missiles. The company 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 Department of Defense awarded Nathan Trotter a $19 million contract to build a tin smelting, refining and recycling facility in Pennsylvania. According to a release from the department, the investment was intended to counter “Chinese efforts to monopolize the global supply, as well as mitigate smelting supply chain vulnerabilities.”
Court accepts charges
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. Prosecutors allege the company paid 166 million Brazilian reais ($32.5 million) to Coopertin, a tin producer cooperative 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, satellite imagery, aerial surveys and field investigations found no evidence of such extraction.
Supply chain scrutiny
Emily Iona Stewart, head of policy and advocacy with the U.K.-based NGO Global Witness, told Repórter Brasil that the U.S. military’s expanding demand for raw materials would drive further harms tied to mining, both illegal and legal, unless safeguards and due diligence are put in place and followed. The Yanomami Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon has been the focus of illegal mining concerns in recent years. The U.S. Department of Defense and the companies named have not publicly commented on the Repórter Brasil investigation in the source material provided.
What to watch next: whether U.S. defense suppliers tighten traceability requirements for tin sourced from Brazil, and how the Brazilian court proceedings against White Solder advance.
