Sumitomo Metal Mining Plans Capex 64B Yen in F2007

Sumitomo Metal Mining announced on Friday the firm plans capital expenditure of 64.4 billion yen for fiscal 2007 started April, up by 3% from previous year. In fiscal 2007 the firm will invest 21.4 billion yen for construction of the second high pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant at Coral Bay Nickel Project in Philippine, 2.4 billion yen for reorganization of productive systems at Toyo plant in Ehime Prefecture, Japan and 500 million yen for capacity expansion of electrolytic nickel by 41,000 tonnes per annum.

The firm plans capital expenditure of 38.1 billion yen in first half of fiscal 2007, of which the firm expends 3.5 billion yen for the Mineral Resources Unit, 22.4 billion yen for the Metals Unit, and 10.6 billion yen for the Electronics & Advanced Materials Unit. In the second half of fiscal 2007, the firm will invest 3 billion yen for the Mineral Resources Unit, of which the firm expends 16.3 billion yen for the Metals Unit and 5.9 billion yen for the Electronics & Advanced Materials Unit.

Sumitomo Metal Mining posted consolidated recurring profit of 205.285 billion yen in fiscal 2006 ended March 2007, which doubled from previous year and hit record for 3 years in a row, announced the firm on Friday. The firm enjoyed the large profit growth thanks to upsurge of nonferrous metal prices and sales increase of these metals including copper, nickel and gold.

In addition the firm gained equity method income of 46.7 billion yen from overseas mines such as Candelaria copper mine, Cerro Verde copper mine and PT International Nickel Indonesia. The firm estimates consolidated recurring profit of 200 billion yen for fiscal 2007 with expectation for equity method income from offshore large mineral projects.