A bit about tin
Native Tin is not found in nature. The first tin artifacts date back to 2000 B.C., however, it was not until 1800 B.C. that tin smelting became common in western Asia. Tin was reduced by charcoal and at first was thought to be a form of lead. The Romans referred to both tin and lead as plumbum where lead was plumbum nigrum and tin was plumbum candidum. Tin was rarely used on its own and was most commonly alloyed to copper to form bronze. The most common form of tin ore is the oxide casserite. By 1400 BC. bronze was the predominant metal alloy. Tin's symbol is Sn from the stannum.
Tin is highly malleable and ductile and also quite resistant to corrosion.
Tin is found as vein tin or stream tin. The tin ore is stannic oxide and is generally found with quartz, feldspar or mica. The ore is a hard , heavy and inert substance and is generally found as outcroppings as softer impurities are washed away http://neon.mems.cmu.edu/cramb/Processing/history.htmlMore about Tin:-
http://www.keytometals.com/Article26.htm
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/tin.htm
According to records tin mining in Phuket started in 1526, in 1583 Portuguese traders started a trading post in Thalang until 1626 when trade was started with the Dutch in Java until 1667 when the concession was terminated. In 1685 French traders were given permission to operate a trading post in Phuket, only to be terminated again a few years later. In1772 Captain Francis Light started a trading post in Tha Reua Thalang and in 1809 tin was discovered in Kathu and later also in Tungka. Trading began with neighbouring ports such as Penang and Malacca and the tin mining industry prospered. Chinese immigrants were employed in large numbers to work in the mines and small communities started to develop in Kathu and Tungka (Later to become Phuket Town). Over the years in Phuket the mining process progressed through four stages as you can see in the images below.