Industrial Tours

Industrial Tours (November 5-6, 2026)

Course 1 (Two days trip) max.40 people

• Hachinohe Smelter (Mitsui) and Kosaka Smelting & Refining (DOWA)
  Hachinohe Smelting is one of the world’s largest ISP smelters and the only one in Japan. It uses a unique process that enables the simultaneous smelting of zinc and lead in a single blast furnace, accommodates a wide range of raw materials, and efficiently recovers valuable metals such as gold, silver, and copper.
  Kosaka Smelting & Refining is the core company of the Dowa Group, and produces nearly 20 different kinds of valuable metals, featuring both copper smelting with a TSL furnace and lead smelting with an electric furnace at one site. The TSL furnace allows operations using 100% recycled materials.
  Green Fill Kosaka operates a controlled landfill site that accepts both general and industrial wastes. One of Japan's largest facilities owned by a private business, the landfill site has a huge capacity of 2.7 million cubic meters.
  Visitors can also tour the Kosaka Mine Office and Korakukan, both of which are important national cultural properties of Japan.
  https://www.hachinohe-smelter.co.jp/
  https://dowa-kosaka.co.jp/en/

Course 2 (One day trip) max.20 people

• Akita Zinc (DOWA)
  Akita Zinc is the largest zinc refinery in Japan, with the following- two objectives:
  -Advanced recovery of various valuable metals
  -Active utilization of recyclable materials
  To achieve the above, utilizing the hematite process and proprietary technologies and establishing a smelting and recycling complex with Kosaka Smelter, contributes to maximizing the use of limited resources.
  On the way to Akita Zinc, you can see one of Japan's leading offshore wind power plants from the Selion Tower Observation Deck.
  https://dowa-zinc.co.jp/group/

Course 3 (One day trip) max.20 people

• Hosokura Metal Mining (Mitsubishi)
  Hosokura Metal Mining Co., Ltd. is a member of the Mitsubishi Materials Group, which is located in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture. The company operates several plants such as a pre-treatment plant for used lead batteries, a blast furnace, an electro-Refining tank house, a byproduct plant and a wastewater treatment facility.
  For more than 30 years, the lead recycling system, which collects used lead batteries, and manufactures lead ingots (electrolytic lead) and lead alloys has been operated in Hosoraku. And it will continue into the future to contribute to the achievement of a carbon-neutral, resource-recycling society in the world.
  On this tour, visitors can join our plant tour, and also visit Hosokura Mine Park, which is the theme park of the Hosokura mine ruin.
  http://www.hosokura.co.jp/

Course 4 (One day trip) max.20 people

• Onahama Smelter and Refinery (Toho Zinc)
  Toho Zinc Co., Ltd Onahama refinery located in the southeastern area of Fukushima Prefecture, became the first plant in Japan to commercialize a ZnO manufacturing method based on the recovery of EAF dust in 1973. It produces 12,000 tons of ZnO sold to rubber manufacturers annually from 40,000tons per year. The process consists of three stages. (1)Calcination-Chlorination process, which removes lead and other impurities utilizing a rotary furnace. (2)Sintering process (3)Reduction-distilling process by which the volatilezinc is recovered as ZnO utilizing an electrothermic furnace. Visitors can also tour the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum on the way from Sendai city to the Onahama smelter.
  https://www.toho-zinc.co.jp/eng/company/map/onahama.html

Note: Applications for the technical tours will be handled through the online registration system.
(Participation in the technical tour will incur a separate fee in addition to the registration fee.)
Note: If the minimum number of participants is not met, the course will be cancelled and participants may be asked to change to another course.