⚒️ Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited Director Natalie Dawson spent nine days in Japan this December as part of the 2023 AmCham Australia QUAD Trade Mission.
Mrs Dawson chronicled her delegation’s movements from Osaka, to Nagoya and then onto Tokyo – taking the opportunity to share the story of the Company’s growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile – at the Llahuin Copper-Gold-Moly Project and Los Pumas Battery Manganese Project.
Southern Hemisphere Mining Chairman Mark Stowell stated that he is pleased to be able to present the company’s two key emerging 100% owned Copper and Manganese mines in Chile to groups of major manufacturers who are looking to use our raw materials to produce EV vehicles, EV batteries and other energy efficient equipment.
“We look forward to bringing new partners into each mine who use the off-take and build a vertically integrated business for the benefit of all,” Stowell said.
Mrs Dawson was also pleased with the opportunities presented by the Trade Mission.
“There is no doubt being invited to be part of this QUAD delegation was an invaluable opportunity for me to discuss our Company strategy around our growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile with key executives – some of which are aligned to our future strategy to process our asset’s ore at site as part of the value chain proposition for the supply chain of critical minerals,” Dawson said.
“As a director of Southern Hemisphere Mining I will continue our discussions with follow up meetings with those key executives noted above, so stay tuned for further updates in the new year.”
Mrs Dawson attended 15+ key meetings with industrial executives, embassy staff from both USA and Australia, along with several factory tours.
Key companies she met with included:
- Sumitomo Corporation
- Toyota Motor Corporation
- IBM
- Panasonic
- Boeing
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation)
- Dow Chemicals
- Microsoft
- Osaka Gas
- Plus visits with key staff at the Australian Embassy and U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and U.S. Consulate in Osaka, as well as a number of VIP dinners with business leaders.
Here are Highlights from her LinkedIn updates.
🇯🇵 My first visits in Japan – The U.S. Consulate and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.
The 2023 AmCham Australia Trade Mission delegation were welcomed into the Osaka office of the U.S. Consulate, with our host Brittany Banta providing an overview of what they are achieving in Osaka.
Of particular interest to me, was their work with critical minerals and the diversification of supply channels for Japan.
I was given the opportunity to talk about Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited’s growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile, with Brittany and the consulate staff offering to provide further information and connectivity relating to these critical minerals – including the lobby group, Battery Association for Supply Chain (BASC) in Japan.
We then spent the afternoon at Osaka Gas, with a comprehensive briefing and plant tour, highlighting the innovation and technology investments they are making particularly in renewable energy and battery storage.
They have considerable investments in Australia and the USA (both in their Top 3 trading and investment areas). This centres around renewables and lowering their carbon footprint globally – working with the Australian and US Governments and industry leaders.
The context these two visits provided me on Japan’s growing need for battery minerals and diversification of supply chain channels will be invaluable for my upcoming discussions on this trade mission.
Up next: Microsoft AI and Panasonic.
Microsoft – Osaka, Japan 🇯🇵
A tour of the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Lab was next on the agenda for the 2023 AmCham Australia delegates in Osaka, with our hosts presenting how Microsoft is working with clients and government to innovate in the emerging AI sector.
My main takeaway was they are focused on security through cyber protection through their innovation, with their message that ‘AI is here to assist us all’ clearly conveyed and it is not about to replace human thinking or ingenuity.
The Australian Consul-General for Japan, Trevor Holloway, joined the AmCham delegation for this presentation, with the Australian Government promoting Australian trade relations at Microsoft as part of The QUAD.
It is interesting to note that my visit as a director of Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited, the Kawasaki Robotics that are managed by the AI require criticalminerals – with our Company growing our Copper and Manganese assets in Chile.
Next stop: Panasonic
Panasonic – Osaka, Japan 🇯🇵
This meeting with Panasonic was one I eagerly anticipated given their need for critical mineral supply channels, and as a director representing Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited’s growing Copper and Manganese assets, this was a great opportunity to understand their vision and strategy.
And our meeting exceeded my expectations.
Panasonic’s strategic presentation centred around innovation, constructing manufacturing plants across key locations and developing diversified criticalminerals supply chain channels. This is just what I wanted to hear given Southern Hemisphere Mining’s assets in Chile.
As a market leader, Panasonic recognised they needed to have a diversified ESG supplychain network, with Panasonic Energy President and CEO of Kazuo Tadanobu being the chair of BASC (Battery Association for Supply Chain) in Japan. The company said they had already conducted a number of strategic visits with AAA rated countries including Australia and Chile – which means our Llahuin Copper and Los Pumas Manganese assets are right where they need to be.
The best part was Panasonic made it clear that processing at site or within country of critical mineral extraction was a key element of their strategy. Which was music to my ears as this aligns with the Southern Hemisphere Mining strategy, given our infrastructure options at both Llahuin and Los Pumas. Meaning we would not have to extract and then export our assets to another country for processing.
A big thank you to Panasonic for coming to The Ritz-Carlton, Osaka for the meeting, (that’s why there are no photos of Panasonic’s headquarters) as this was a discussion that ticked a lot of boxes for Southern Hemisphere Mining and we will be having follow up discussions in the future.
Thank you to Panasonic’s Kaz Sakomoto, Atsuko Oguchi and Dan Takahashi for the opportunity to meet and connect, as I continue to tour Japan with the 2023 AmCham Australia Trade Mission delegation.
Next up: Some R&R in Kyoto, then off to hashtagNagoya to meet with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Boeing and Toyota Motor Corporation.
Boeing and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries – Nagoya, Japan 🇯🇵
Our next two meetings once we reached Nagoya were with Boeing and then Mitsubishi Heavy Industries – as they are conveniently located next to each other in the city as part of the their commercial collaboration.
What is interesting about this setup, is Mitsubishi actually manufactures wings for Boeing, which are then sent – by plane – to the USA where they are assembled with the rest of the aircraft.
Boeing executives shared with our AmCham Australia Trade Mission delegation how they are reducing their carbon footprint through their strategic vision for innovation. In relation to Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited and our growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile, although Boeing did admit batteries were not part of their immediate future (principally due to weight), the company does require criticalminerals to build their instrumentation for aircraft.
It was fascinating to hear them predict that flying cars will indeed be on the horizon.
We then walked next door to the Mitsubishi offices, where we learned more about the collaboration with Boeing and were given an informative factory tour (with photography not permitted due to security measures).
This is a highly automated manufacturing process, with skilled technicians constantly testing the process to ensure quality and efficiency.
The Mitsubishi executives also kindly shared their vision of the future for their industry, whilst recognising the need for them to move with the rest of the world to reduce their carbon footprint.
Next is a meeting with Toyota Motor Corporation – also in Nagoya.
Toyota Motor Corporation – Nagoya, Japan 🇯🇵
Nagoya is the birthplace of Toyota, so we were given the opportunity to not only meet with Toyota executives but conduct a fascinating tour of the Toyota Museum and learn about the evolution of the brand from textile industry automation to motorised bikes and vehicles.
More on that shortly.
Toyota’s Takuo Muto and Munenori Oishi were very generous with their time over a working lunch, sharing their presentation on how Toyota is reducing their carbon footprint, improving technology and service delivery across the future of the business. Toyota’s technological development is reliant on a supply chain network.
Toyota – like Panasonic, who I met with earlier on the trip – are particularly focused on how they can secure a stable and sustainable supply of criticalminerals, which is aligned to Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited’s growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile – a AAA rated country. Excellent.
Now the Toyota Museum tour highlighted innovation, strategic thinking and cars… so, of course, I loved every minute of it.
A little known fact is the founder, Mr. Kiichiro Toyoda changed the spelling of his last name for the commencement of his company to Toyota. He did this because in Japanese ‘Toyota’ is only 8 strokes in the Japanese language, and 8 is a lucky number in Japan, where as the traditional spelling of his name was 9 strokes… turns out luck’s a fortune. (The inner geek in me loved this)
The innovation continued for Mr. Toyota when he decided he wanted to move into the production of motor vehicles. So he imported a car from Detroit, disassembled it to see how it worked, and this then helped him design and develop his first Toyota model.
If you look at the black car in the gallery – it resembles the American cars we are familiar with in American movies.
The tour showed off the evolution of the Toyota range, with the brand expanding into the Toyota Motor Corporation we now know.
If you are visiting Japan, the museum is a must see and the 2023 AmCham Australia Trade Mission delegation I am part of, was certainly treated by Toyota during our visit.
Thanks again to Toyota‘s Takuo Muto and Munenori Oishi for their time and generosity.
Next: We head on a bullet train to Tokyo and my first meeting there is with IBM.
IBM – Tokyo, Japan 🇯🇵
Look at all this Copper ⭐
With copper being such an important critical mineral in technology, I was fortunate to see the ‘IBM Quantum System One’ up close during our AmCham Australia delegation’s visit to IBM’s Quantum Facility in Tokyo.
There’s only four of these supercomputers in the world.
The close up photo with me is a model of the supercomputer – showcasing all that copper – the actual one is seen in the wider shot behind me.
With Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited’s growing copper asset at Llahuin in Chile, observing just how much copper is incorporated into this supercomputer was enlightening, especially given how involved computers (and the criticalminerals required inside them) are in our everyday life.
Next: Dow Chemicals, and the US and Australian Embassies in Tokyo.
Dow, Australian and U.S. Embassy, The QUAD VIP Dinner – Tokyo, Japan 🇯🇵
A busy day in Tokyo as we first met with Dow President Patrick McLeod and his executive team who have had a successful JV (50+ years) with Dow Toray Co. in Japan.
This partnership demonstrates that success can be achieved by playing to the commercial strengths of each partner under strong, mindful and transparent leadership. Thank you to Patrick and his team for your candour and generosity.
Then we met with members of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo Japan, before an enjoyable and informative light lunch at the in Tokyo where the Australian Ambassador Justin Hayhurst provided a comprehensive briefing on Australian-Japanese relations surrounding criticalminerals, energy and defence.
Several members of the Ambassador’s team joined us including specialists in Treasury, Education, Defence and Trade. It was fantastic to meet up with Vivien Lim from Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), I have worked with one of her colleagues Andrew Barnes in Indonesia so I know the great work Austrade do.
The Embassy team was very knowledgeable and helpful, immediately offering to exchange ideas as to how they may be able to help our relations in Japan. As a director of Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited this was quite reassuring having the support of the Australian Embassy, as this 2023 AmCham Australia Trade Mission has opened new doors for our Company to begin important discussions around our growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile.
This section of the Tokyo leg for the delegation finished with a QUAD Trade VIP dinner hosted by UNSW at The Tokyo EDITION, Toranomon. The President of Boeing Japan Will Shaffer spoke, with the evening spent amongst VIPs from the Fortune 500 CEO Advisory Council, Board Members, Caterpillar Inc. and AmCham Japan – thank you to all for joining us.
Next – two key meetings to round up the trip with Sumitomo Corporation and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).
Both are critical minerals traders and investors in the development of a critical mineral supply chain across Australian and Chilean companies.
Sumitomo Corporation and JOGMEC – Tokyo, Japan 🇯🇵
Two key meetings round up our 2023 Trade Mission with valuable visits to Sumitomo and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).
Both are criticalminerals traders and investors in the development of a critical mineral supply chain across Australian and Chilean companies, so this was going to be an interesting few hours.
Executives from Sumitomo’s Minerals & Resource Division explained how they support a wide range of customers by securing mineral, oil and gas resources, whilst creating new business opportunities by leveraging their trading businesses, derivative functions and global value chains.
They not only trade in critical minerals but explained how their strategy ties in to creating a value chain within the critical minerals supply chain, through investment.
Their key investment criteria is a rich mineral ore base, and from there they work in a JV arrangement where Sumitomo executives take a management role in the project/asset development.
As a director of Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited with growing Copper and Manganese assets in Chile, seeing Sumitomo’s asset map showcasing investments in both Australia and Chile was exciting as our strategic alignment presents attractive opportunities for future discussion.
Having the chance to observe and discuss Sumitomo’s assets worldwide and knowing the value Southern Hemisphere Mining would play as part of any diversified critical mineral supply chain made this meeting one of the highlights of my trip.
The AmCham Australia delegation’s next stop in Tokyo was with JOGMEC.
JOGMEC’s strategic goal towards a carbon-free future is through securing and strengthening critical mineral supply chains.
The executive team we spent time with were responsible for the Australian Lynas mining development deal, whereby JOGMEC secured this supply chain of critical minerals by making an investment in the Lynas Rare Earths Ltd development.
During a Q&A, JOGMEC executives advised the delegation that the core to a project’s feasibility was the asset’s mineral deposit, as well as an ethical supply chain (incl. doing business with AAA economies) whereby both sides understand this is a long term investment. This kind of approach to patience and strategic thinking surrounding investment was noteworthy.
They also advised us that the key to their strategy is processing must occur on site where the asset is located, as they were not interested in a project or investment where the ore would need to be extracted on site and then processed overseas.
Given my background as an experienced professional in the development of infrastructure and mining assets, participating in such strategic investment discussions with JOGMEC and Sumitomo was an excellent way to wrap up our official duties.
I look forward to further discussions with both Sumitomo and JOGMEC – particularly given their alignment to our own strategy.
Next – my fond farewell to Japan.
News Release
Date: 20 December 2023 | ASX Code: SUH | Frankfurt Exchange: NK4
===
Southern Hemisphere Mining Limited is an experienced minerals explorer in Chile, South America.
Chile is the world’s leading copper producing country and one of the most prospective regions of the world for major new copper discoveries. The Company’s projects include the Llahuin Porphyry Copper-Gold-Moly Project, the Lago Lithium Exploration Project, and the Los Pumas Manganese EV Battery Project, all of which were discovered by the Company.
For the latest information about the Company – please visit our Latest News and Corporate Profile pages. We are also on LinkedIn and Twitter (X).
