SMMPH to manage Sumitomo’s growing nickel operations in Philippines

On February 22, Sumitomo Metal Mining Philippine Holdings Corporation (SMMPH), a subsidiary established by Japanese miner Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (SMM) in 2010, inaugurated operations as regional headquarters for the company's nickel business operations in the Philippines. SMM acts under Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Corporation.
 
Against the backdrop of rising rare metal resource prices, since 2005 SMM has scored notable commercial success with the technology known as "high pressure acid leaching," or HPAL, which enables recovery of nickel and cobalt from low-grade laterite, a process that had long been difficult to achieve. SMM has applied HPAL to produce nickel/cobalt mixed sulfide at Coral Bay Nickel Corporation (CBNC) in the Philippines. It is an intermediate product with 60 percent nickel content that serves as a resource for the production of factory-made electrolytic nickel. CBNC has capacity to produce 24,000 mt of the product per year.
 
Also in the Philippines, a nickel refining plant is presently under construction on the island of Mindanao. The plant with a designed annual capacity of 30,000 mt is expected to go onstream in 2013.
 
SMM has decided to transfer to SMMPH other areas common to the two units, raising
SMMPH's status to headquarters overseeing all nickel operations in the region.
 
Under its 2009 three-year business plan, SMM has set a long-range target of a nickel production structure of 150,000 mt per annum.