Nippon Mining & Metals to Start Valuable Metal Recycling Plant

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Monday the firm starts commercial operation for first phase of recycling plant, Hitachi Metal Recycling Complex (HMC) in Ibaraki in November. The plant recovers antimony, bismuth, tin and nickel from recycled materials at the subsidiary, Nikko Environmental Service in Ibaraki and intermediate product at Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery in Oita. Nippon Mining & Metals completes construction of the third phase facility by March 2009. The firm completed the construction of the first phase of HMC in July starting the test operation in August. The first phase is to recover annual 150 tonnes of antimony, 200 tonnes of bismuth, 500 tonnes of tin and 500 tonnes of nickel. Nippon Mining & Metals completes the construction of the second phase by December to recover annual 700 tonnes of zinc and 6 tonnes of indium. The third phase is to recover 6,000 tonnes of copper, 500 kilogram of gold, 50 tonnes of silver and 200 kg of platinum.