Sumitomo Corp. to Expand Captive Nonferrous Resources

Sumitomo Corporation’s mineral resources and energy business unit tires to expand the captive nonferrous resources mainly for copper. The unit will seek new resources of nickel, gold and other metals. Senior managing executive officer Michihisa Shinagawa said the unit tries to expand the business step by step.

The unit already announced the development of new resources at Northparkes gold and copper mine with Rio Tinto and Sumitomo Metal Mining. The unit tries to keep the advantage in copper business compared with other Japanese trading firms. The unit tries to expand stable way through the cumulative partnership with miners.

The unit already decided to develop nickel resources in Madagascar with Dynatec Corporation of Canada, Korea Resources Corporation of South Korea and SNC Lavalin of Canada. That is the first project without mineral majors for Japanese firm. Sumitomo Corp. tries to make balanced mineral resource portfolio by investing to copper and other nonferrous metals.