A porous sintered metal comprising voids at least partially communicating with
each other, and pores provided in walls of the voids, the porous sintered metal
having a BET surface area of 700 cm2/cm3 or more, and an
average diameter of the pores being 1 m or more when measured by a mercury
press-in method. The porous sintered metal is produced by blending a metal powder,
a binder and resin particles to prepare a mixture in which the resin particles
are dispersed; molding the mixture to provide a green body; selectively extracting
the resin particles from the green body with a solvent; debinding the extracted
green body by heating; and sintering the debound green body.