All Japan Regime Targets Stable Nonferrous Metal Resource Procurement, Industry Official

Chairperson of Japan Mining Industry Association and president of Sumitomo Metal Mining Nobumasa Kemori, attended the association’s new-year celebration party in Tokyo on January 6 and emphasized All Japan regime by Japanese private and public sectors is required to secure offshore nonferrous metal resources stably. He gave his recognition that Japanese smelters are under severe competition when raw material consumption has expanded in emerging countries such as China, supplying oligopoly has advanced among mineral majors, China has shown strong appetite for raw materials, and mineral nationalism has strengthened in recent years. In the new-year party, approximately 200 concerned people of Japanese nonferrous metal industry attended.

Mr. Kemori also referred to necessity to utilize nonferrous metal resources more effectively and to establish a recycling based society by promotion of nonferrous metal recycle. He told Japanese smelters should widen recycling business not only for base metals and precious metals but for rare metals and rare earths. However, he also described recycling business is still unprofitable with the present scale and productivity. He said Japanese smelters try to establish more effective scrap collecting system in cooperation with public and local sectors as well as to improve recycling technologies.