Japan, China Smelters Win Higher 2011 Copper Fees From Miners

Copper smelters in Japan and China have agreed to increased treatment and refining charges from global copper mining companies for 2011, smelters and traders said Monday.

Pan Pacific Copper, Japan's biggest copper smelter, confirmed it had agreed to treatment and refining charges of $80 per metric ton and 8 cents per pound with an unnamed South American miner for contracted shipments of copper concentrate in 2011.

This represents a 72% increase over the fees set in 2010.

Traders in China reported a major Chinese smelter had agreed to contracts with a North American copper mining company at $70/ton and 7 cents/lb, a 51% price hike over last year.

Mitsubishi Materials (5711.TO) also confirmed it had agreed to copper concentrate treatment contracts with Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) and BHP Billiton (BHP), but didn't discuss the charge levels.

TC/RCs are paid by miners to smelters to turn copper concentrate into copper cathode. They are the key source of revenue for smelters, and tend to rise when concentrate availability is sufficient or smelters are producing below capacity.

-By James Campbell, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]

(Chuin-Wei Yap in Beijing and Kazuhiro Shimamura in Tokyo contributed to this story.)