By Miho Yoshikawa
TOKYO (Reuters) - South Africa's minerals minister, in Japan to promote the country's abundant natural resources, said on Wednesday that she has visited a number of Japanese firms where she sought to calm fears about a new trade policy.
South Africa's Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica told Reuters that she met officials at several companies, including trading house Itochu Corp and Furuya Metal Co Ltd.
She said she planned to meet with officials at Mitsubishi Corp later on Wednesday.
"I have tried to allay the fears in Japan (about the beneficiation policy)," Sonjica said on the sidelines of a minerals seminar in Tokyo.
Beneficiation is the South African government's policy of adding value to minerals instead of directly exporting the raw commodity as it is.
Sonjica said she made clear that investment incentives would follow if foreign firms supported the government policy.
South Africa is using diamonds as a test case for other minerals, including uranium, gold, platinum group metals and titanium, for its beneficiation policy which seeks to broaden access to the country's mineral wealth.
South Africa is already the top supplier of platinum to Japan, with shipments in 2006 amounting to about 53.9 tonnes, accounting for about 83 percent of the total volume of Japan's imports of the precious metal.
Platinum, used in jewellery, is also in great demand as an auto catalyst to clean car exhaust fumes.
South Africa is also the top exporter to Japan of such rare metals as chrome, palladium, titanium and others.
But, Japan is scouring around for new sources of natural resources, most particularly rare metals, many of which are an indispensable component in the country's high-tech industries.
Sonjica, who is due to leave Japan on Thursday, also paid a visit to Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari on Wednesday to discuss stepping up closer economic ties.
Japanese government officials have recently been vocal about backing private-sector efforts to procure raw materials, particularly scarce rare metals.
"The private sector should take the initiative, but it is important for us make clear that the government is backing this move, and that is what we mean when we talk of the need for resource diplomacy," Amari told reporters ahead of his meeting with Sonjica.
The South African minister also said on Wednesday that the government is on track to procure the targeted 10 percent of locally produced diamonds, as part of a policy to share the country's mineral wealth among the black majority.
The State Diamond Trader, established this year, will buy the locally produced diamonds for resale on the local market, mostly to black cutters and polishers.
