〔Day Digest〕LME Copper and Aluminum Slide to Multi-Week Lows While China Adds ~1.05M Tons LCE at Jiada and an Indian Recycler Patents 99.9% Tin-from-E-Waste - Spot Drag vs Supply Pipeline

0. Session Arc

LME base metals opened the Asian session under broad selling: three-month copper lost 1.0% to $14,265.5/ton and three-month aluminum slid 1.1% to $3,127/ton, the weakest aluminum print since 20 July ^[1][2][3]. Two supply-side stories landed on the same day - a roughly 1,046,800-ton LCE addition at the Jiada deposit in Western Sichuan and a 99.9%-purity tin-from-e-waste patent in India ^[4][5][6]. Read: spot pricing and the long-run resource base are telling different stories on the same tape.

1. Price Action

• **[NEW] LME 3-month copper:** -1.0% to $14,265.5/ton, with losses expanding through the Asian session per Cailianshe and Gelonghui ^[2][3].
• **[NEW] LME 3-month aluminum:** -1.1% to $3,127/ton, the lowest level since 20 July ^[1].
• **Source note:** the copper tick is corroborated by two wires; the aluminum print is single-source via Cailianshe ^[1][2][3]. The packet carries no volume, open-interest, or LME warehouse inventory data, so the move cannot yet be attributed to flow rather than positioning.

2. Lithium: Jiada Reserve Step-Up

• **[NEW] Jiada lithium mine, Western Sichuan:** Xinhua, relayed by Yicai, Cailianshe and People's Daily, reports a new LCE addition of approximately 1,046,800 tons, lifting cumulative registered LCE to 2,531,000 tons and reinforcing Jiada's status as a super-large pegmatite-type lithium deposit ^[7][5][6].
• **Mechanism:** the report frames the addition as a "consolidation" of resource scale rather than a fresh discovery ^[5]. The packet does not include an extraction timeline, capex estimate, or processing route.
• **What it would falsify:** the price weakness in the base-metals tape is not yet mirrored in a lithium-specific move, and the packet contains no carbonate or spodumene price print to confirm transmission to the lithium complex.

3. Tin: E-Waste Patent

• **[NEW] Rikayaa Greentech, India:** the Indian Patent Office granted Patent No. IN 602754 on 16 September 2026 (application 202511050927) for an integrated tin-refining route from e-waste and other secondary feedstocks, titled "A Method for Refining Tin from E-Waste" ^[4]. The process stacks mechanical separation, lower-temperature vacuum treatment, chloride fluxing, and zone refining, and is stated to deliver a minimum 99.9% purity ^[4].
• **Mechanism:** the patent lowers the temperature requirement relative to conventional pyrometallurgical refining and adds a zone-refining polish step, which the source frames as the route to 99.9% ^[4]. No commercial output, off-take, or unit-cost data is supplied.
• **Source note:** the grant is single-source via the International Tin Association; the technical claims have not been independently verified in the packet ^[4].

4. What Decides Next

• The aluminum print at $3,127/ton is the first decisive break below the late-July range; confirmation requires a second session and an inventory print, neither of which is in the packet ^[1].
• The Jiada LCE step-up and the Rikayaa patent are supply-side, not demand-side, and the packet provides no read on Chinese smelter throughput, lithium conversion economics, or Indian tin-scrap collection rates to translate them into a near-term price view ^[4][5][6].
• Watch items: the next LME session tape for confirmation, a public reserve filing on Jiada, and any Indian commercial-scale disclosure from Rikayaa ^[4][1][5].