OREANDA-NEWS. On July 9, 2014, two prime ministers, Shinzo Abe and Tony Abbott, visited West Angelas Mine, which is jointly operated by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Rio Tinto ("RT"). Being operated by Robe River Iron Associates ("Robe J/V"), formed by joint capital contribution of RT, MITSUI, and our company in equity ratios of 53%, 33%, and 14%, respectively, West Angelas is a major-scale 29-million-ton-per-year open-cut mine.

This inspection tour materialized, taking the opportunity of our Prime Minister's official visit to Australia, and from our company, Mr. Mimura, Honorary Chairman, and Mr. Sakae, Managing Executive Officer, accompanied the two prime ministers on this tour, together with the top executives of RT and MITSUI.

At West Angelas, with a presentation of the state-of-the-art mining technology, the dynamics of the operations of the ongoing expansion project (capacity increase from 29 to 35 million tons a year) were in full sight of both prime ministers. It was an occasion for a better understanding of the fruition of the long years of cooperation between Japanese and Australian enterprises and Japanese companies' contribution to the Australian iron-ore industry.

Through Robe J/V, we continue efforts to realize stability in the supply and procurement of iron ores, deepening the cooperation between Japanese and Australian businesses.