1 Fusion, July 2007 - Rio Grande

JOURNAL OF THE PMC GUILDMitsubishi’s Environmental PositionMitsubishi Materials Corporation,manufacturers of PMC, is an enormouscompany that handles hugequantities of copper, silver, and gold.ose of us who use Mitsubishisilver and gold are right to ask howthey rate on the issues of responsiblemining. Tim McCreight, an officerof the PMC Guild, was invitedto Japan in 2006 to research thatquestion.“In my opinion, their reportcard could say B-, trending upward,”he says.“I visited one of Mitsubishi’slargest facilities in Japan, locatedon the island of Naoshima on theInland Sea. e manager of the plantdrove me from one vast structure toanother, where I saw, literally, tonsof silver and gold, and hundreds oftons of copper ingots. e companyhas made important strides in thelast few years to enlarge its recyclingfacilities.In their 2006 Social ResponsibilityReport, Mitsubishi describes aprogram that recycles their own industrialwaste in an effort to reducethe purchase of oil. Even though thecompany grew, their energy costswere held below the 2005 level.Also from the report: “Recycledraw material from waste and byproductsaccounted for 18% or 3.07million tons of raw material input in2006. Had the waste—1.89 milliontons—not been recycled, it probablywould have gone into landfills.”e full 50-page report, and a3-page extract about the metalsdivision are available for downloadat www.PMCguild.com in theGetting Started/ Tech Data section.e MitsubishiMaterials refineryand recycling facilityat Naoshima Island.PAGE 11