SUMITOMO Metal Mining Co, Japan's second-biggest copper smelter, is seeking deposits in Latin America to increase its raw material supply from captive mines to as much as 70 percent from 40 percent in four years.

    "May be in Peru and Chile," Mikinobu Ogata, executive officer of the nonferrous metals division, said in response to a question yesterday.

    "We're doing aggressive exploration. The only way for us to survive is to have more mines." Sumitomo Metal Mining joins Pan Pacific Copper Co, the world's biggest buyer of copper concentrate, and LS-Nikko Copper Inc in a search for their own deposits as the fees they receive from mining companies for treating raw material tumble, curbing earnings, Bloomberg News reported.

    Japan competes with China and South Korea for global supplies of raw materials.

    Sumitomo Metal Mining has stakes in mines including Morenci in the United States, Candelaria in Chile, Northparkes in Australia and Batu Hijau in Indonesia, the company said.

    Copper has tumbled 22 percent from its July 2 peak of US$8,940 a ton on concern that the global credit crunch will slow economic growth, reducing demand for industrial metals. World copper demand outpaced production by 130,000 tons in the first half, less than a shortfall of 264,000 tons a year earlier, according to the International Copper Study Group.

    The company has lowered unit costs by increasing the Toyo smelter capacity in Japan to 450,000 tons. Annual production in the year ending on March 31, 2009, will be 400,000 tons after a maintenance shutdown in May and June, Ogata said.

    Chinese mainland producers, the biggest processors of imported concentrate after Japan, will suffer from lower sulfuric acid prices and lower Shanghai copper prices next year, he said.

    Sumitomo Metal Mining has a 27-percent stake in Jinlong Copper Co, an producer in China's Anhui Province.