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