Securing a stable supply of natural resources
Investment in
the Canadian copper mine project
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- Investment in the Canadian copper mine project
Continuous investment in
overseas mines
to secure
500,000 tons of copper
concentrates
To secure metal resources from mines and deliver them to society, Mitsubishi Materials has invested in overseas mines with the aim of ensuring stable procurement of clean copper concentrates. Currently, Mitsubishi Materials holds interests in four operational mines: Copper Mountain Mine in Canada, and Mantoverde Mine, Los Pelambres Mine, and Escondida Mine in Chile, and secures approximately 150,000 tons of copper concentrates annually from these mines.
While mining development has a long history, many easily accessible mining locations have already been exploited, resulting in the challenge of increasing production costs for mines. Moreover, there is a shortage of supply for rare metals like cobalt, despite the growing demand for them. To address these concerns and ensure a stable supply of metal resources, Mitsubishi Materials has set a target to increase the volume of secured copper concentrate from the current 150,000 tons to over 500,000 tons by FY2031.
Securing a stable supply of
natural resources through
investment in the Canadian
copper mine project
In April 2023, Mitsubishi Materials acquired 5% of the stocks of Western Copper and Gold Corporation (WRN), a company in Canada. WRN owns 100% of the Casino Mine Project, which involves a copper mine located in Yukon, a territory in northwestern Canada, and aims to start production in 2030.
The Casino Mine boasts abundant reserve amounts, and the copper concentrates it produces are expected to have few impurities, ensuring clean quality. The mine is projected to stably provide copper resources in the long term until 2057. Additionally, the concentrates are profitable due to their high-grade (pure) gold content, in addition to copper.
This stock acquisition is part of our initiatives for securing a stable supply of copper concentrate, which is a natural resource, through ongoing investments in copper mines. By steadily promoting this project, we will advance these initiatives.
Creating synergies
by applying techniques
developed through mining
Koichiro Takatsugi
Assistant General Manager
Mining & Metallurgy Laboratories
Technology Development Dept.
Metals Company
At the Mining & Metallurgy Laboratories I belong to, we provide technical support to maintain stable operations at smelter/refinery and mine sites, offer solutions for technical issues in operations, and also develop processes to create new business.
As a leader on the mining and mineral processing team, I lead young researchers and work closely with frontline teams to
analyze the root causes of existing issues and develop solutions in order to secure necessary quantities of copper
concentrates with stable quality.
Furthermore, we are committed to developing unique technical synergies within Mitsubishi Materials by applying mineral
processing techniques, cultivated through mining over the years, to each smelting location.
To achieve the FY2031 Strategy, we will focus on developing technologies to enhance the productivity of our invested
operating mines and strive to secure a supply of copper concentrates from these mines. Specifically, we aim to develop
efficient processes for extracting necessary metals from ore. In new mine investment projects, we also need to identify
technical risks that cannot be discerned solely from the disclosed information.
I will add more value to our mineral resources business by solving these issues.
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