Pan Pacific Copper to Increase Copper Output by 3.3% in 1H

Pan Pacific Copper (PPC), the copper business joint venture between Nippon Mining & Metals (NMM) and Mitsui Mining & Smelting (MMS), announced on Wednesday that PPC planed to produce 291,800 tonnes of copper ingot during the first half fiscal year to September 2006, increasing by 3.3% from the same period of 2005. The copper production will increase by around 15% at Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery and Hitachi works of NMM during April-September 2006 from the half year to March 2006. On the other hand, the production will decrease by around 3% at Hibi Kyodo Smelting, the affiliate of MMS, due to the seasonal repair of the 2nd electrolytic furnace in June.PPC plans to produce 857,000 tonnes of sulfuric acid in the first half to September 2006, increasing by 18.1% from the same period of 2005. The production will increase by 38% at Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery and Hitachi works and by 7% at Hibi Kyodo Smelting compared with the second half to March 2006. PPC will also produce 17 tonnes of gold and 141 tonnes of silver in the first half to September 2006. The gold output will increase by 27.2% and the silver decrease by 14% from the same period of 2005.Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Wednesday the firm will produce 600 tonnes of copper, 117,000 tonnes of zinc, 31,500 tonnes of lead, 6.2 tonnes of gold and 106.1 tonnes of silver in the first half to September 2006. The copper production decreases to 600 tonnes from 85,800 tonnes in April-September 2005, when the firm transferred Hibi Kyodo Smelting to PPC. The zinc output will increase by 25.8% from the same period of 2005 thanks to the production commissioned from NMM and Dowa Mining at Hachinohe refinery. The lead output will increase by 6.8%, gold by 1.6% and silver by 6% from the same period of 2005.