1964, it started production in 1965 and went out of business in 1966. Drew Chemical, on stream in 1964, has never had its plant up to full capacity. The company claims the plant is still "equipped to go," but admits to only limited operation today. Monsanto, which started producing cyclamate in 1965, says it is still making the sweetener in spite of rumors to the contrary. However, its operation is being constantly reviewed. This leaves Abbott, Chas. Pfizer & Co., Pillsbury, Norse Chemical, and Union Starch & Refining (now a subsidiary of Miles Laboratories). All say they are still active producers.
More copper from silicate ore At Hayden, Ariz., the Ray Mines division of Kennecott Copper Corp. is putting in a sulfuric acid leach plant to extract copper from copper silicate ore. When completed by mid-1968, the project will up Ray Mines' annual copper output to about 100,000 tons from the present 72,000 tons. Ray Mines won't be the first company to reclaim copper from copper silicate ore. Anaconda Copper at Yerington, Nev., and Inspiration Consolidated Copper at Miami, Ariz., also have sulfuric acid leaching plants to win copper from copper silicate. Anaconda installed its unit in 1953, and Inspiration's has been operating since 1926. The copper deposits at Ray Mines' open pit mine in Ray, Ariz., have a fairly high content (about 1%) of chrysocolla, a copper silicate ore. This doesn't lend itself to separation by conventional flotation techniques. Until now, therefore, the material has been separated from the main body of the ore and put aside. During the past year, Ray Mines has been checking out the acid leach technique in a pilot plant. The commercial unit will cost $35 million. Holmes & Narver, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., will be in charge of the project. In its new plant, Ray Mines will crush the chrysocolla and deslime it with raking classifiers. The coarse particles and the slime will be leached separately with sulfuric acid. The coarse material will be held in vats with the acid for seven to 10 days. The slimes will be agitated with the acid for about 24 hours. An electrolysis step will then recover the copper from the soluble copper sulfate. Separation of the ore from the slime is necessary because of the high alumina content in the ore, which calls for a rigorous acid treatment. The separation leads to better control over the leaching operation. The company will make its own
acid from sulfur dioxide extracted from its smelter flue effluent. This will be a standard contact acid plant. Kennecott points out that, besides the economic advantage involved, removal of the sulfur dioxide will aid air pollution control. Kennecott already has a sulfuric acid plant at the location; the 100 ton-a-day unit uses pyrite sponge iron.
Computer sales to climb sharply in Japan $182 million
1967 1968
$207 million
1969
$228 million
1970
$249 million
1971
$274 million
1972
$300 million
GE computer move in Japan
1973
$328 million
General Electric is moving ahead with plans to set up a joint computer venture in Japan with Tokyo Shibaura Electric (Toshiba) and Mitsubishi Electric. First validation request will probably go to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) this September. Approval may take three or four months. Initially, the new company will sell imported GE units. Later, possibly in about three years, it will manufacture in Japan. GE plans eventually to offer its full computer line—from "small units through its 600 system"— through the joint venture. At the same time, the firm will market office computers produced by Toshiba and Mitsubishi. GE and Mitsubishi will each own 33% of the new company, Toshiba the remaining 34%. A Toshiba man will head the firm. Present plans call for the jointly owned company to have rights to sell worldwide. The deal should give GE a sharper wedge in the growing Japanese computer market, estimated at about $182 million for 1967. The market will jump to $328 million by 1973, according to one estimate (see table). Japan now ranks third in the world in computer use, with some 1900 installed units valued at about $300 million as of 1966. Meanwhile, MITI indicates that applications by two other U.S. companies—Control Data Corp. and Computer World Trade Corp.—for limited operations in Japan will be "accepted," subject to certain conditions. In MITIese, this apparently means the conditional approval is in the offing. The main condition for CDC is that it not operate directly, but sell its products through C. Itoh and Co., one of Japan's big trading companies. The main condition for Computer World Trade is that it restrict its operations to leasing punch card systems, at least for now, and that it get MITI approval on a case-by-case basis for future activities. MITI's avowed policy is to avoid "confusion" in Japan's computer m a r k e t that is, to restrict competition, especially from foreign companies, until Japanese firms gain strength. International Business Machines,
Source:
C&EN e s t i m a t e s
through its 99% -owned subsidiary, IBM Japan, Ltd., and backed up by IBM World Trade Asia Corp., now has about 40% of the computer market in Japan. Univac ranks second with about 12%. The remaining 48% is split more or less evenly among six Japanese companies-Fujitsu, Ltd., Hitachi, Nippon Electric Co., Oki Electric Industry Co., Toshiba, and Mitsubishi. These six companies formed a joint firm, Japan Electronic Computer Co. (JECC), in 1961 to finance rentals of computers. JECC is closed and limited to the six member firms. However, the GE/Toshiba venture will be able to channel its products into JECC through either of its two Japanese participants. GE had already entered the Japanese computer market in a limited way through the technical agreement it made with Toshiba in the spring of 1964. This agreement covers manufacture by Toshiba of GE's mediumrange 415 and 425 systems. About 25 or 30 such systems have been sold in Japan so far. The previously made agreement and the fact that GE is Toshiba's largest single shareholder (11.1%) make Toshiba a logical enough partner. A less obvious bedfellow is Mitsubishi Electric, which competes with Toshiba in many areas and markets certain Westinghouse products. The new venture thus represents a confrontation of sorts of four of the world's largest electrical manufacturers. Actually, the main line which pulled Mitsubishi Electric into the deal is its previous technical licensing agreement on industrial control systems with Bunker-Ramo (on the BR 530 and 540 systems). GE bought BunkerRamo about a year and a half ago. GE's moves on the international scene—three years ago with France's Bull and some time later with Italy's Olivetti—along with activity by other computer companies are undoubtedly a challenge to IBM. How serious the challenge is remains to be seen. In computers, the name of the game is still "beat IBM." FEB. 6, 1967 C&EN 27
