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Relacionado:
Minera Escondida: Ejemplo de despojo al país, Hugo Fazio (22/08/06)
Fuente:
africa.reuters.com
(05/07/07)
Mayor fundidora de cobre de Japón
Chile y Perú, en la mira de Pan Pacific Copper
Por Miho Yoshikawa
TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Pan Pacific Copper Co. Ltd., la principal fundición cuprífera de Japón, tiene en la mira a minas en Chile y Perú para su próximo proyecto de exploración, dijo el jefe de la compañía. Eiji Kato, que asumió su cargo en la firma en abril, afirmó que Pan Pacific se encontraba en una etapa relativamente avanzada de su estudio.
"Estamos pensando en una o dos minas que podrán suministrarnos concentrados", indicó Kato en una entrevista con Reuters, aunque no mencionó ningún yacimiento. Para Pan Pacific es crucial incrementar su propio suministro de concentrados de cobre si desea cumplir con su objetivo de abastecer el 50% de sus requerimientos a través de minas propias en los próximos cinco a 10 años, desde el actual 16 por ciento.
Kato señaló que la compañía estaba considerando minas que puedan producir de 50 mil a 100 mil toneladas de concentrados de cobre por año. Pan Pacific es un emprendimiento conjunto entre Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd., que posee una participación del 66 por ciento, y Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. Ltd., que tiene el restante 34%.
africa.reuters.com
INTERVIEW-Pan Pacific eyes Chile, Peru for copper
By Miho Yoshikawa
TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Pan Pacific Copper Co. Ltd., Japan's top copper smelter, is looking at potential mine sites in Chile and Peru as candidates for its next exploration project, the head of the company said on Thursday.
Eiji Kato, who took over at the firm in April, said Pan Pacific was in a relatively advanced stage of its study.
"We are thinking of one or two mines that will be able to supply us with concentrate," Kato told Reuters in an interview, though he did not name any sites.
It is crucial for Pan Pacific to increase its own supply of copper concentrate if it is to meet its goal of procuring 50 percent of its raw material needs from its own mines in the next five to 10 years, up from the current 16 percent.
Kato said the company was looking at mines that could produce 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate a year.
Pan Pacific is a joint venture between Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd., which has a 66 percent stake, and Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. Ltd. <5706.T>, which holds the remaining 34 percent. Nippon Mining & Metals is part of the Nippon Mining Holdings Group <5016.T>.
Pan Pacific produces about 610,000 tonnes of copper cathode a year, and is the world's top buyer of copper concentrate at about 1.6 million tonnes a year.
As part of its exploration efforts, Pan Pacific will move ahead with its feasibility study at Chile's Caserones open-pit copper mine, formerly known as Regalito, from next year.
The mine is expected to produce an annual 110,000 to 150,000 tonnes of copper in cathode, if the project advances as planned and output begins in 2011.
South America is so central to the firm's plans that Kato said he has even started studying Spanish.
"I think it would be good if I could speak even a few words of the language," he said.
FOCUS ON CONCENTRATE
Japan's custom smelters are stepping up efforts to explore overseas mines as profit margins in copper refining, which has been their main business, are getting increasingly tight.
This is due in part to the tough terms they have had to recently accept from foreign miners to process copper concentrate, the raw material for producing the metal.
Mine output has not kept pace with an expansion in smelting capacity, particularly in China, and this has caused copper concentrate supplies to tighten, giving miners the power to dictate much of the terms for refining ore into metal.
Kato said he expected concentrate supplies to remain tight for the rest of the year, meaning copper-processing talks for calendar 2008 contracts starting at the end of the year will likely be tough again.
However, he added that this tightness would probably ease next year.
"Copper prices have risen to levels that we had not anticipated, and all miners are trying to take advantage of the situation by hiking production," Kato said.
The industrial metal is currently trading above $7,800 a tonne, up about 30 percent from the start of 2007.
"The higher output should start reflecting on the concentrate market next year or the year after, which means the business situation should start looking better for us," he said.
Kato said Pan Pacific was also using about 10 percent more scrap this year than 2006 as feedstock at its facilities.
In the latest midyear contract, which runs from July 2007 to June 2008, Pan Pacific agreed to fees of $50-$55 per tonne and 5.0-5.5 cents per pound, down sharply from calendar 2007 contracts, which were mostly set at $60/6.0 cents.
It concluded deals with Escondida, run by BHP Billiton Ltd./Plc. , among others.
The price participation clause in contracts, which take into account fluctuating copper prices, was revived in one of the three contracts it concluded, Kato said, without elaborating.
Kato said the company would continue to press for inclusion of the clause, noting that processing rates were already close to breaking below profitable margins. ((Reporting by Miho Yoshikawa, editing by Hugh Lawson;
Reuters Messaging: miho.yoshikawa.reuters.com@reuters.net;
+81-3 5473-3706; miho.yoshikawa@reuters.com))
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