IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from January 25

London Metal Exchange tin inventories, which reached the lowest level in 30 years earlier this past week, received the largest inflow since November 2014. The delivery goes some way to assuaging growing concerns of tightness in the refined tin market, which saw prices hit a seven-month high of $21,070 per tonne on Thursday – up by 8.3% since the start of the year.

First Quantum Minerals has suspended production at its Cobre Las Cruces copper mining and hydrometallurgical complex in Spain following a land slippage at its open-pit mine on Wednesday January 23.

A rupture in a tailings dam at Vale’s Feijão iron ore mine in the city of Brumadinho, in in southeast Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, has flooded the company’s administrative facilities and part of the nearby Vila Ferteco community.

Fresh restrictions on production planned for China’s steelmaking hub of Tangshan in the northern region do not appear to have had any effect on steel prices, market sources told Fastmarkets MB.

There has been increasing emphasis on spodumene pricing due to the growing importance of this concentrate as a major source of feedstock for conversion in lithium compounds and the potential knock-on effect in the downstream electric vehicle and battery sectors.