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Corporate Profile (cont’d)<br />
The Butterworth smelting facility uses the reverberatory furnace<br />
technology which is ideally suited for customs smelting. The<br />
smelting and refining operation has undergone significant<br />
technological, flow sheet and process changes and now has<br />
the capacity and capability of treating a wide variety of tin<br />
bearing materials.<br />
Today the Butterworth facility takes in primary and secondary<br />
tin concentrates as well as crude tin metal from all over the<br />
world and is now the world’s oldest and biggest custom tin<br />
smelter.<br />
The Butterworth customs smelting operation provides an<br />
efficient and reliable conversion outlet for tin concentrates<br />
production arising from today and future tin mining projects. It<br />
has good logistical infrastructure with its next door neighbour,<br />
the Penang International Container Terminal, providing<br />
excellent turnaround times for both import of tin bearing<br />
materials as well as export of refined tin to all corners of the<br />
world.<br />
The Indonesian smelting unit currently smelts tin concentrates<br />
from its own mines’ production and future utilization of its<br />
unused capacity will come both from the improvement in its<br />
own mines’ production as well as from third parties under<br />
tolling arrangements.<br />
The smelting units fully conform to environmental regulations<br />
in their respective locations with strict monitoring of effluent<br />
and atmospheric emission discharges. All intermediates and<br />
by-products generated are either recycled internally and/or<br />
sold as products to other recycling processors.<br />
The quality of MSC’s product is well recognized by the tin<br />
industry globally and the Group strives to maintain its leading<br />
position. As a testimony to our commitment for excellence,<br />
MSC was awarded the Product Excellence Award in the open<br />
category from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Industry of<br />
Malaysia for the high purity 4-Nines tin exports in 1997. With<br />
regard to quality compliance, the smelting plant in Butterworth<br />
has attained ISO certification under ISO 9002 in 1994. This<br />
certification was subsequently upgraded to ISO 9001 – 2000 in<br />
2001 and then further upgraded to ISO 9001 – 2008 in 2010.<br />
maRketIng anD<br />
tRaDIng UnIt (m &t)<br />
The Division’s M&T provides the Group with access to the<br />
KLTM/LME terminal pricing markets as well as to end-user<br />
markets worldwide. M&T works with a panel of reputable LME<br />
brokerage houses and has both agency arrangements as well<br />
as direct sales to end-users.<br />
M&T is well placed to provide tin buyers with quality tin from<br />
two smelter locations in two different countries and offer the<br />
flexibility of both LME and KLTM pricing arrangements. The<br />
LME registered Malaysian warehouses in Pasir Gudang and<br />
Port Klang together with the LME Singapore warehouses<br />
provide tin buyers and traders with excellent and fast access to<br />
these warehouses.<br />
The M&T provides pricing/hedging support to both the<br />
Group’s mining units as well as the Butterworth smelting unit’s<br />
commercial requirements.<br />
M&T also provides valuable market intelligence with its<br />
international network of suppliers, brokers and end users.<br />
mIneRal exploRatIon<br />
MSC employs a range of exploration methods commensurate<br />
with the types of mineral deposits and site conditions. Initial<br />
reconnaissance is carried out using established geophysical<br />
and geochemical methods together with detailed mapping<br />
of the sites. Exploration methodology employed is in<br />
accordance with the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves<br />
Committee (JORC) Code which is the universally accepted<br />
standard for reporting of exploration results, mineral<br />
resources and ore reserves.<br />
For alluvial and loose eluvial deposits, the well-proven Bangka<br />
drilling (mechanised or non-mechanised) method is extensively<br />
used onshore including water-logged and swampy areas. The<br />
equipment is highly versatile and may be hand-carried to<br />
remote sites for comprehensive drilling campaign.<br />
MALAYSIA SMELTING CORPORATION BERHAD (43072-A) • ANNUAL REPORT 2011 5