Efforts to Cultivate the Next Generation

The Too Free Research^® EXPO is a contest that invites junior and senior high school students across Japan to submit independent research projects (research outputs). Companies, universities, and other organizations take part as commendation partners and review the submissions from the perspective of their own fields before recognizing outstanding work. JX Advanced Metals joined as a commendation partner. The contest received 3,857 submissions from across Japan, and our company presented an award named the Copper Award for Outstanding Creativity.

JX Advanced Metals collaborated in the Manufacturing Experience Workshop, a program that supports students in entering STEM careers, hosted by the College of Engineering at Ibaraki University. We conducted an outreach lesson at the Junior Division of Hitachi Daiichi High School in Ibaraki Prefecture on November 1, 2024. The Manufacturing Experience Workshop is held as part of Ibaraki University’s STEM pathway support program for female junior high and high school students. The program aims to help students feel closer to manufacturing and to convey the enjoyment of the field by engaging in hands-on activities. Technical employees of JX Advanced Metals served as the instructors and led an experiment on solvent extraction to teach the principle of separating a target substance from a sample. The lesson also introduced the importance and appeal of nonferrous metals and copper.

On June 7 and 8, 2024, JX Advanced Metals exhibited an interactive booth for elementary, junior, and senior high school students, along with a science workshop for junior and senior high school students, at the open campus event held at the University of Tokyo’s Komaba Research Campus (Komaba II Campus).
The interactive booth featured a thermal conductivity experiment to demonstrate how the characteristics of copper support daily life. The science class offered a hands-on copper extraction process using metal reactivity, oxidation-reduction reactions, and other science concepts studied in junior high school, giving students a sense of how this knowledge is applied in industry.

JX Advanced Metals presented an exhibit introducing the Nippon Mining Museum at the 12th HitNet Mini Exhibition Unlocking the Potential of Metals – Japanese Industrial Technology hosted by the National Museum of Nature and Science. The exhibition took place on the second floor of the Global Gallery at the National Museum of Nature and Science. We displayed an introduction panel for the Nippon Mining Museum during the exhibition period and showcased copper ore, copper cathodes, and copper sputtering targets for semiconductors to present the history of the Hitachi Mine and the potential of copper.

In fiscal 2022, we established the JX Advanced Metals Prize to recognize outstanding students who will contribute to the next generation of metalworking artistry. This annual award is given to one student enrolled in the Department of Metal Hammering at the Tokyo University of the Arts who achieves particularly outstanding academic results. In fiscal 2024, the award was presented to Takae Imai, a second-year student in the doctoral program of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. By supporting the development of the art of metal hammering, we continue to spread an understanding of the appeal and importance of metals, contributing to the wider recognition of culture and the arts.