Calamine the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines for being one of the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. Calamine is available over the counter as a generic medication. The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$0.25–3.85 per 100-ml bottle. In the United Kingdom, it costs the National Health Service about £0.44. Calamine is used to treat itchiness. This includes from sunburn, insect bite, or other mild skin conditions. Calamine is mixed with either zinc oxide (ZnO) with about 0.5% ferric oxide (FeO) or a zinc carbonate compound. Calamine lotion is a component of
Pitinga mine By 1990 the mine directly employed 2,000 people, and indirectly perhaps as many as 40,000. Trees were cleared, the river diverted and dams and ponds built before the alluvium deposits were processed. Bucketwheel excavator dredges extracted material rich in cassiterite, which was pumped through pipes to floating processing plants that separated the tin ore. The cassiterite is concentrated on site, then shipped to Mamoré Mineração e Metalurgia in the southern state of São Paulo for casting. Columbite ore is also mined, concentrated and processed on site for use in production of FeNbTa metallic alloy. Up to 1990 a total of