Know MC's People

I said these words to myself when I joined the business world as a way of paraphrasing the famous "cool heads but warm hearts" reference by the late Alfred Marshall, who is one of my favorite economists.
I joined MC because I'm passionate about helping people around the world, whether they live in advanced or developing countries. When I achieved my ambition to be assigned to a mining project in Latin America, one of my senior colleagues said to me, "When you go to work, you need to remember what's more important than earning your salary, and that's being a professional who contributes to society." His advice made me realize the significance of professional awareness and skill.
That realization was a big help while I was on secondment to a mining project in Peru during the Covid-19 pandemic. A state of emergency was announced and the borders were closed. The local medical clinics were reduced to field hospitals and I actually knew people who died. Our mine's operations were also temporarily suspended. It was a very difficult time, but I worked together with my Peruvian colleagues to review the mine's business plan and otherwise carry on. We were professional and we did our jobs. Everyone, including my superiors, colleagues and family, who were with me, pulled together and overcame a tough situation. That gave me a lot of confidence.

I work in the GCEO Office, the role of which is to assist our group's upper-management team. My responsibilities include doing due diligence for new investments, managing the progress of the businesses after we invest in them, and devising our investment portfolio strategy. The purpose of all of that work is to help our management team make the right decisions.
In the business of mineral resources, particularly that involving mining operations, it's not unusual for projects to be worth hundreds of billions of yen. They also have huge impacts on the local communities, natural environment and economic activities. Engaging in these businesses demands accountability to stakeholders and resolute decision making backed by a thorough understanding of the mining business, commodity markets, and so on. I want to take full advantage of the know-how I've gained through my mining secondment in Peru and other assignments to help ensure that our upper-management team makes the right decisions. If I can do that, I'll be contributing in my own small way to developing local societies through mining, and I do find that very rewarding.

I'd like to help realize a world where as many people as possible can enjoy a happy and comfortable standard of living. There are a lot of ways to do that, but I think the commodity I deal in, copper, also has the potential to make it happen. Copper has high conductivity and is virtually omnipresent in anything that's electrical. It is a vital metal resource, one that's essential to our lives, and it's also widely used in renewables-based power generation, electric vehicles and other things that are helping our world to decarbonize.
On the other hand, most high-grade copper mining takes place in very challenging business environments. For example, the mine I was seconded to in Peru is situated some 4,300 meters above sea level. Expectations are that the world will experience a shortage of copper sometime in the future, which is precisely why I want to help MC stabilize the supply of copper from its own mining investments. I want that copper to deliver the light that brightens the futures of people all over the world.