Vale gets 10yr operating licence for giant Brazilian iron-ore mine
VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Brazil-based iron-ore mining leader Vale has received a ten-year operating licence for its giant Carajás S11D project, the largest project in the company's history.
Brazil’s federal environment agency Ibama said in a statement Friday that Vale had fulfilled 16 specific conditions to operate the 90-million-tonne-a-year operation.
Vale stated Friday that construction of the S11D mine and plant was 96% physically complete as at October 30, with the hot commissioning progressing well. A 110-wagon train was loaded with about 10 000 t of product.
The $14.4-billion S11D project’s start-up is slated for the end of 2016, with the first commercial shipment to take place in January 2017.
The operating licence for the S11D mine and plant is an important milestone to consolidate Vale’s position as the largest and lowest C1 cash cost producer in the world.
The project is expected to reach full output by 2018, enough to fill 225 Valemax ships – the largest cargo carriers in the world.
The S11D mine will boost Vale’s current 109-million-ton capacity to 230-million tons a year, while having a smaller environmental footprint than existing operations. The S11D project does not include tailings dams owing to a combination of the high-quality ore and state-of-the-art beneficiation technology. The beneficiation process does not need water, making environment-friendly dry-stacking tailings disposal methods feasible.
The project has adopted other technologies such as the implementation of a truckless system, in which ore is mined without the need to use "off-road trucks", which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation