Japan Major 6 Smelters Plan 38% More Investment in F2011

Japanese major 6 nonferrous metals smelters including Sumitomo Metal Mining, Mitsubishi Materials, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Dowa Holdings, Toho Zinc and Furukawa plan to increase capital expenditure by 38% to 208.3 billion yen for fiscal 2011 started April from fiscal 2010. Sumitomo Metal Mining expends 43.1 billion yen for new nickel smelter in Philippines while Toho Zinc plans to invest 8 billion yen for development of Australian Rasp zinc and lead mine. JX Nippon Mining & Metals failed to disclose the investment value but the firm plans to develop Caserones copper mine in Chile.

Sumitomo Metal Mining plans 78.2 billion yen of investment including nickel smelter for Taganito project in Philippines in fiscal 2011 while the firm expands electrolytic nickel production to 65,000 tonnes at Niihama refinery for 2.8 billion yen of total 14 billion yen. The firm expends 2.2 billion yen for renewal of furnace refractory at Toyo copper smelter. The firm secures another budget to get interest in Sierra Gorda copper project in Chile.

Toho Zinc plans 12 billion yen of investment for fiscal 2011 including development of Rasp mine. The firm already started the development of the mine through the subsidiary, CBH Resources in Australia after the firm got environmental approval from New South Wales. The firm expects the mine starts test operation in July-September 2012 reaching full capacity operation in October-December. With the new mine, Toho Zinc can secure around 80% of zinc ore requirement from own mines.

Mitsubishi Materials plans to invest 66 billion yen for fiscal 2011 mainly for renewal. Mitsui Mining & Smelting plans 31.3 billion yen of investment mainly for expansion of electrolytic copper foil in Malaysia. Dowa Holdings plans 16.5 billion yen of investment while Furukawa plans 3.3 billion yen of investment.