Non-ferrous metals
As the term suggests, “non-ferrous metals” refer to all metals other than iron. For example, nickel and gold are used in a wide range of industrial fields that include components for electric and electronic products, machine components, construction materials, and automobiles, and they are part of the foundation of modern society.
Digitalization is proceeding apace, and technological innovation and energy conversion are required in order to realize a de-carbonized society and protect the environment. Against this backdrop of growing societal issues and
generational needs, it is expected that non-ferrous metals will play an even greater role going forward.
As the term suggests, “non-ferrous metals” refer to all metals other than iron. For example, nickel and gold are used in a wide range of industrial fields that include components for electric and electronic products, machine components, construction materials, and automobiles, and they are part of the foundation of modern society.
Digitalization is proceeding apace, and technological innovation and energy conversion are required in order to realize a de-carbonized society and protect the environment. Against this backdrop of growing societal issues and
generational needs, it is expected that non-ferrous metals will play an even greater role going forward.
Sumitomo Metal Mining mainly produces the base metal copper, the minor metals nickel and cobalt, and the precious metals gold and silver.
Business: Smelting & Refining BusinessCopper
Alongside gold, copper is said to be one of the first metals that humans obtained, and copperware is known to have been used in Mesopotamia and Egypt as long ago as 4,000 BC. The main production area for copper in those days was the island of Cyprus, and it is said that this is the origin of the English word “copper”. Bronze (an alloy of copper, lead, and tin) was brought to Japan from China around the second century BC. Large quantities of bronze ware such as mirrors, spearheads, and bells have been found in ancient burial mounds, the remains of houses, and similar places.
The most familiar item will find copper in is a 10 yen coin in Japan, but lots of copper is used in electric cables. Copper’s high electrical conductivity means that it is used in things that are essential for everyday life, such as electricity transmission cables, electrical systems in cars, and electrical wiring in households. As well as these things, wrought copper is also used in air conditioners and pipes for water heaters given its heat conductivity.
The international standard is the price that it is traded at on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Copper is traded four times a day for a period of five minutes each time, and the price at the second round of trading is released for the world to use as the price of copper on a given day. When Sumitomo Metal Mining purchases copper concentrate (the raw material for copper) from overseas mines, it uses the LME price as the standard.
Investors: Market TrendsSumitomo Metal Mining’s largest suppliers of copper concentrate are the copper mines in the USA as well as Peru and Chile in South America that Sumitomo Metal Mining holds interest in, and it takes around two months for it to be shipped by sea to the Toyo Smelter & Refinery. As well as these places, Sumitomo Metal Mining also imports copper concentrate from Australia and other places around the Pacific rim. When it arrives, the copper concentrate is lifted ashore at Sumitomo Metal Mining’s own dock.
Not only processing copper concentrates, but also Sumitomo Metal Mining is promoting recycling. The Toyo Smelter & Refinery recovers and dissolves copper extracted from used electric cable, automobiles, and other such things, and gives it life once more as electrolytic copper.
The raw material is brought to Japan as copper concentrate from copper mines that Sumitomo Metal Mining has invested in, including mines in the USA as well as Peru and Chile in South America, and refined into electrolytic copper after removing components except copper. The Toyo Smelter & Refinery boasts the world’s top- class technological capabilities.
See “Smelting and Refining Process” in the base overview for details of the Toyo Smelter & Refinery’s smelting and refining process.
Nickel
It is thought that humans had been using nickel before the Common Era, but it was not recognized as being nickel and was used in an alloy with iron. Nickel was first successfully extracted and recognized as an individual metal in the middle of the 18th century.
The origins of the word “nickel” can be found in the German word Kupfernickel. The meaning of this word in German is “the devil’s copper”, and it is said that this name was given to nickel by miners because while a certain type of nickel mineral ore looked identical to copper mineral ore, they were unable to extract copper from it.
Nickel is one of the metals that is widely used in everyday life. As well as being used for plating, nickel is often found in a range of different alloys, and the 50 yen and 100 yen coins that are made from an alloy of nickel and copper represent the most familiar item in which nickel can be found in Japan. Another typical alloy in which nickel is used is stainless steel, the raw material for which is the nickel and iron alloy ferronickel. With its superb corrosion resistance, heat resistance, and abrasion resistance, stainless steel is used in the kitchen and for utensils and other such things.
Nickel is also employed as a material in the nickel metal hydride batteries and lithium ion batteries used in things including hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, on top of which it is also used as the raw material for capacitors, which are an absolutely essential component found in cell-phones and computers. As this shows, nickel is used in a wide range of fields in everyday life.
Nickel mineral ore is mainly produced in places including Russia, Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Caledonia. As the economies of emerging countries grow, it is expected that the demand for nickel will continue to grow henceforth. However, much of the nickel resources that remain undeveloped are low-grade oxide ore, and it has always been thought that it would present an extreme technological challenge to make use of these resources.
Sumitomo Metal Mining was the first in the world to successfully commercialize HPAL technology, and it is receiving a lot of attention as it is a technology for extracting nickel from low-grade oxide ore.
As mentioned above, consumption of nickel and stainless steel in China and other emerging countries is expected to grow henceforth. It is also anticipated that demand in the fields of energy and environment will grow due to factors including expansion of the markets for hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, both of which use secondary batteries.
HPAL: High Pressure Acid Leaching
This technique recovers nickel from low-grade oxide ores, which has always been considered to present a great challenge. Sumitomo Metal Mining was the first in the world to achieve a successful practical implementation on a commercial basis. Making low-grade nickel oxide ore available as a usable resource enables effective use of our limited nickel resources and a stable supply of competitively priced nickel raw material. The Coral Bay Nickel Corporation and Taganito HPAL Nickel Corporation (THPAL) produce nickel intermediates by stably reacting low-grade oxide ore with sulfuric acid under high temperature and pressure.
MCLE: Matte Chlorine Leaching and Electrowinning
This is a refining process that is used at Sumitomo Metal Mining’s Niihama Nickel Refinery, and it involves dissolving nickel matte and mixed nickel-cobalt sulfide (MS) in chlorine and then electrowinning metal directly from the nickel chloride solution. While this offers higher cost competitiveness in comparison to other production methods, the technology needed to do it is difficult to master.
Domestic Core Facilities: Niihama Nickel RefinerySumitomo Metal Mining produces mixed nickel-cobalt sulfide (MS) with a nickel grade of approximately 60% from low-grade oxide ore (laterite ore) at Coral Bay Nickel Corporation and Taganito HPAL Nickel Corporation (THPAL) in the Philippines. Using this MS as the raw material, Sumitomo Metal Mining produces electrolytic nickel, electrolytic cobalt, nickel sulfate, and other such substances at its Niihama Nickel Refinery and Harima Refinery in Japan. See “Smelting and Refining Process” in the base overview for details of the Niihama Nickel Refinery’s smelting and refining process.
Domestic Core Facilities: Niihama Nickel Refinery omestic Core Facilities: Harima RefineryGold
Humans had been using gold as jewelry before the Common Era, and many items of jewelry have been found among the artifacts dug up from ancient Egypt and Rome. The ancient Roman Empire in particular was extremely enthusiastic when it came to operating gold mines in the areas that it controlled. Golden jewelry items have also been found in large numbers in ancient burial mounds and other such locations in Japan.
It is said that since the beginning of history, the volume of gold extracted from the ground by humans would fill approximately four Olympic swimming pools, that is, approximately 200,000 tonnes. Nowadays, over 3,000 tonnes of gold are newly produced each year. In addition, as gold is relatively easy to recycle, a large amount of gold is recovered and undergoes repeated refining. [As of the end of December 2019]
Sumitomo Metal Mining’s Hishikari Mine is the most productive mine in Japan, having already produced more than three times the amount of gold that the second-placed Sado mine in Niigata Prefecture produced. The third most productive mine, the Konomai mine in Hokkaido, was also operated by Sumitomo Metal Mining and its former incarnation the Sumitomo Group from 1917 until its closing in 1973. Currently, all the gold mines in Japan other than the Hishikari Mine have closed or have suspended operations.
The top three mines in Japan for gold production (as of the end of March 2022)
1. Hishikari, 260.1 tonnes (from 1985 to present)
2. Sado, 83 tonnes (1601 - 1989)
3. Konomai, 73 tonnes (1915 - 1973)
Globally, a gold mine is said to produce good quality ore if the gold content is five grams per tonne of mineral ore, but Sumitomo Metal Mining’s Hishikari Mine boasts extremely high quality ore with around 20 grams of gold per tonne.
However, if you imagine a single car weighs around one tonne, it still works out that just a few spoonfuls of this would be gold. Despite the fact that the Hishikari Mine produces superb quality ore, the volume of gold it provides is still extremely small.
While many people see gold as jewelry or a form of money, in Japan much gold is used for electronic components.
Gold mineral ore extracted at the Hishikari Mine is smelted and refined at the Toyo Smelter & Refinery, and processed into gold with a purity of 99.99% or higher.
See “Turning Mineral Ore from the Hishikari Mine into Gold” in the base overview for details of the Hishikari Mine’s manufacturing process.
Other metals
Sumitomo Metal Mining Group company Shisaka Smelting Co., Ltd. undertakes recycling operations to recover zinc from the ash left over from steel making in electric furnaces.
See “Smelting and Manufacturing Process” in the base overview for details of Shisaka Smeltings’s process.