Subject: [cwj 37] Sumimoto Metal Mining to Invest US$98 MLN in the Philippines
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 12:36:32 -0700
Seq: 37
Wednesday, June 14 5:52 PM SGT Japanese Mining Firm to Invest US$98 MLN in the Philippines MANILA, June 14 Asia Pulse - Japanese firm Sumimoto Metal Mining Corp (SMMC) plans to invest US$98 million to set up its nickel smelting operations in the country. SMMC is entering into a joint venture with Rio Tuva Nickel Inc. (RTNI), a Filipino owned mining company, to build a nickel smelting plant in the province of Palawan. The latter owns a nickel mine. SMMI and RTNI are currently conducting a detailed feasibility study on the project that will employ a new smelting technology. Construction of the smelting plant will start next year and commercial production is expected to start in 2003. Board of Investments Governor Antonio Leviste said the Philippine mining industry was critical to the country's economy. "Our country ranks among the first five countries in the world in terms of rich mineral deposits. And this gives us the potential to become very attractive to investors and competitive with our Asian neighbors," he said. "There is no other industry that is more capital intensive than the mining industry," he added. The BOI created in 1998 the Mining Industry Assistance (MINA) Desk which has extended assistance to investors on a one-on-one basis. BOI managing head Raul Hernandez is geared at institutionalizing the MINA Desk by organizing a taskforce that will look for solutions to problems frequently encountered in the mining industry. The taskforce will include, aside from the BOI, officials of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Tourism, Department of Interior and Local Government, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, and other representatives from the private sector. (PNA) FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________