Japanese mining company interested to invest in PNG

The General Manager of the Overseas Mineral Resources Business Department of Nittetsu Mining Co. Limited, Shinichiro Mita, met with the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, in Tokyo this morning to express interest in investing in Papua New Guinea, especially in the mid-size copper and limestone operation.

Nittetsu Mining is a Japanese mining company that specializes in both metallic and non-metallic mineral resources, and they are involved in mining, exploration, processing, and distribution of minerals, including limestone, copper, and other related products.

They also have a copper mine in Chile. They engage in machinery development, environmental engineering, real estate, and renewable energy projects.  They have been a long term importer of copper concentrate from the OK Tedi Mine.

Minister Maru thanked them for their strong interest to invest in PNG and extended an invitation for them to attend the 2nd PNG Special Economic Zone Summit in Port Moresby which will be hosted from August 31st to September 3rd, 2025.

“I will link them with the Mineral Resources Authority and Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited so they can work with them to pursue their interest to be a mid-sized copper and limestone mining company in PNG.

"We are looking for more Japanese investors to invest in PNG and we will go all out to support them,” said Minister Maru.

Mr Maru also met with the representatives of the Sumitomo Forestry Co. Limited who own and operate the Open Bay Timber Limited in East New Britain Province where they have 10,000 hectares of eucalyptus plantation.

He encouraged them to seriously consider downstream processing, instead of exporting round logs to markets like Vietnam and China, only to import the finished products back into PNG.

“We have a clear government policy for PNG to stop exporting round logs by 2025,” said Minister Maru.

The company admitted that because of the decision by the Indonesian Government to ban the export of round logs, they now have a major downstream processing plant in their operations in Java where they are processing all the logs from their forest plantations in Indonesia.

They will be happy to do the same in PNG. However, the issues that they have are electricity and road access to the Open Bay.

“I will discuss these issues with the Minister for Forests and the Managing Director for PNG Forest Authority, John Mosoro, on my return to PNG. This is a very low hanging fruit as far as going into downstream processing is concerned,” Minister Maru added.