Metals and Resource Circulation Business

Known as E-scrap, discarded printed circuit boards of various electronic devices such as home appliances, personal computers, mobile phones, smartphones, and network devices have gained attention in recent years as a new source (known as the urban mine) of precious smelting materials because they contain high concentrations of valuable metals such as gold, silver, copper, and palladium.
Furthermore, amid growing environmental concerns, the amount of E-Scrap recovered is expected to increase in line with the higher recycling rates of home appliances and other items.
Taking advantage of the Mitsubishi Process for continuous copper smelting, a unique technology for smelting precious metals with the lowest environmental impact in the industry, our Group has been promoting the expansion of E-Scrap receiving and processing. Through the combined operations with Onahama Smelting and Refining Co., Ltd., our group company, we are working to expand this business further and achieve the leading share of the world market in terms of processing volume.

In addition to copper smelting, we also have the advantage of having lead smelting, tin smelting, precious metal smelting, and PGM refining capabilities within the Group, and we are working on measures for recovering various valuable metals even more efficiently by turning the Group into a single smelting system to build process flows across production bases.
For example, by organically linking together the areas in which each production base excels, such as efficiently processing and recovering lead-containing by-products generated by copper smelters at lead smelters, and efficiently processing and recovering tin-containing by-products generated by lead smelters at tin smelters, we aim to establish a robust business that is immune to changes in the external environment.

Material Grid