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.