News Release

FY2018

May 23, 2018

JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation

Ceremony Commemorating the Opening of the Frankfurt Office

On May 22, JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation (President: Shigeru Oi; hereinafter “the Company”) held a ceremony at a hotel in Frankfurt, Germany, to commemorate the opening of the Company’s Frankfurt Office in July 2017.

Addressing the approximately 130 guests in attendance at the ceremony, including Setsuko Kawahara (Consul General of Japan in Frankfurt am Main), Johannes Beyer (President of the Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft e.V. Frankfurt am Main), and business partners from Germany and other European countries, President Oi pointed out that, Germany is where Industry 4.0 got its start, and is a major driver of worldwide trends. He observed that Germany is also a highly important base for the Company bringing it into direct contact with various market needs and future potential, and expressed a desire to use the Frankfurt Office as a new gateway to building even better relations within the Company’s businesses.

One of the goals of the Company’s Fiscal 2017–19 Medium-Term Management Plan is to “developing and strengthening technology-based businesses that will be mainstays of the future.” In line with that aim, the Company established a new office in Frankfurt, Germany—a country that represents not only an important global center for many metal-related industries, including automotive and electronics, but also a major source of cutting-edge research on such themes as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence—in July 2017. The Company also decided to purchase all shares in Germany-based H.C. Starck Tantalum and Niobium, which converts rare-metal tantalum and niobium ores into powders, in a joint arrangement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The procedures for finalizing the purchase are currently underway.

The new Frankfurt Office will help the Company, in particular, to strengthen its information-gathering capabilities and bolster collaborative efforts with relevant companies and research institutions across Europe.