Fighting over cassiterite deposits (particularly in Walikale) is a major cause of the conflict waged in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The current major tin production comes from placer or alluvial deposits in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maakhir region of Somalia, and Russia.

For example, the passage in book 18 chapter 610: αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ τεῦξε σάκος μέγα τε στιβαρόν τε, 610τεῦξ᾽ ἄρα οἱ θώρηκα φαεινότερον πυρὸς αὐγῆς, τεῦξε δέ οἱ κόρυθα βριαρὴν κροτάφοις ἀραρυῖαν καλὴν δαιδαλέην, ἐπὶ δὲ χρύσεον λόφον ἧκε,

But when the glorious god of the two strong arms had fashioned all the armour[11]Liddell-Scott-Jones suggest the etymology to be originally Elamite; citing the Babylonian kassi-tira, hence the sanskrit kastīram.

[9] However the Akkadian word (the lingua franca of the Ancient Near East, including Babylonia) for tin was "anna-ku"[12] (cuneiform: 𒀭𒈾[13]).

[16] Attempts at understanding the etymology of the word were made in antiquity, such as Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis (book 34 chapter 37.1):"White lead (tin) is the most valuable; the Greeks applied to it the name cassheros".