According to the company’s website press release on December 21, 2022, Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.) Inc. ("Mitsui USA"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Kenichi Hori), has entered into agreements with Florence Copper LLC ("Florence") for copper cathode offtake and an equity conversion right. Florence plans to produce low-carbon copper cathode in Arizona, U.S.A. Mitsui USA will pay USD50 million to cover part of the development costs, and will receive copper cathode and also acquire an equity conversion right. Florence is a wholly owned subsidiary of Taseko Mines Limited, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Florence plans to produce copper using the in-situ recovery (ISR)* for extracting the metal from underground deposits. This method will enable mining operation with carbon emissions approximately 80% lower compared with conventional copper mining, and also a low environmental burden, since no shovels, trucks, or other heavy machinery are used to extract copper. Once the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issues the final environmental permit, Florence will start construction of the project, which is expected to take 18 months, and then will commence production. Mitsui will use its marketing and business development expertise accumulated over the years to contribute to the sale of the low-carbon copper cathode in the United States and the development of the project.
Mitsui’s Materiality
“Build brighter futures, everywhere” as our corporate mission, and to gain the trust and expectations of our stakeholders to realize a better tomorrow for earth and for people around the world, we have identified five material issues (“Materiality”) for Mitsui’s sustainable growth. We anticipate this particular project/ business to contribute especially to the realization of “Secure sustainable supply of essential products” and “Create an eco-friendly society”
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Mitsui's current assumptions, expectations and beliefs in light of the information currently possessed by it and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause Mitsui's actual results, financial position or cash flows to be materially different from any future results, financial position or cash flows expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors referred to above include, but are not limited to, those contained in Mitsui's latest Annual Securities Report and Quarterly Securities Report, and Mitsui undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
This announcement is published in order to publicly announce specific facts stated above, and does not constitute a solicitation of investments or any similar act inside or outside of Japan, regarding the shares, bonds or other securities issued by us.
The information contained in this release is true and accurate at the time of publication; however, it may be subject to change without prior notice.
Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
Corporate Communications Division
Telephone: +81-80-5912-0321
Facsimile: +81-3-3285-9819
https://form.mitsui.com/webapp/form/16694_csy_13/index.do
Copper is an important industrial material. Further demand growth is anticipated due to the increasing use of electric vehicles and the development of renewable energy infrastructure driven by rising environmental awareness on a global scale. Mitsui has set a coal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, and aims to halve its greenhouse gas (GHG) impact by 2030 compared with the level in FYE March 2020. Through this project and other GHG reduction initiatives, Mitsui will contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society.
*ISR is a method in which diluted acidic solution is injected into the ground to dissolve copper minerals in situ. The resulting solution is then pumped up to the surface. This mining method is commonly used for uranium extraction, but there are few copper mines that are suitable for this type of extraction.
