Sumitomo Metal Mining Reviews Up Capex for No.2 HPAL Plant

Sumitomo Metal Mining announced on Monday the firm reviewed capital expenditure for construction of no.2 HPAL (high pressure acid leach) plant in Coral Bay Nickel, the Philippines to US$ 307 million (33.1 billion yen) from previously planned US$ 285 million (30.7 billion yen). The firm revised up capex by 8% for specification change of some facilities.No.1 and no.2 HPAL plants are planned to produce nickel-cobalt composite sulfide at 22,000 tonnes per annum. No.1 plant already started operation while incidental facilities will be co-used with no.2 plant, which is scheduled to start operation in April 2009. Consequently total output capacity of these 2 plants will increase by 10%.