Vale Completes Phase I of Salobo Copper Mine in Northern Brazil

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Latin America (Cordoba, Argentina)--Vale SA (NYSE:RIO) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) has just started operations at its new copper mine, considered the largest copper deposit ever discovered in Brazil. The Salobo mine is located in the mining district of Carajás, in the Para state in northern Brazil.

The first phase of the Salobo mine will be an open-pit operation, and the extracted ore will be transported by a 2-kilometer conveyor belt to the 12 million ton-per-year processing plant, where it will be crushed, sorted and concentrated by flotation. In this first stage of development, Salobo will produce 100,000 tons per year of copper in concentrate and some gold as a byproduct. The total investment amount for the Phase I was $2.34 billion.

In parallel with the beginning of operations at Salobo, Vale is advancing construction on an expansion project, known as Salobo Phase II, which will double the mine's processing capacity to 24 million tons per year, adding another 100,000 tons of copper in concentrate annually. Salobo II will require an additional investment of $1.43 billion, of which $581 million will be invested during this year.

Construtora Barbosa Mello SA (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Engeform S. A. (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are in charge of the construction on the project. The expansion project is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2014.

Vale began producing copper in 2004, with the opening of the Sossego mine. Vale also operates copper mines in Canada and Chile. In 2011, Vale's red metal production reached 302,000 tons, a 45.7% increase compared with 2010, when copper concentrate production was 207,000 tons.

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