Brazil's Vale Advances $10.1 Billion Serra Sul Iron Ore Project

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Brazilian miner Vale (NYSE:RIO) (Rio de Janeiro), the world's largest iron ore producer, is advancing its Serra Sul iron ore project, located about 60 kilometers (km) southwest of the city of Parauapebas, in Brazil's Para State.

Serra Sul will produce 90 million tons per year of iron ore, becoming the world's second-largest iron ore mine after the company's Carajas mine. Carjas is located 40 km away and is also undergoing a $2.5 billion expansion project. The Serra Sul project entails the excavation of an open pit mine and the construction of a beneficiation plant. The company will also build a 104-km rail line from the Carajas mine to connect Serra Sul to the company's Amazon railway. An extra set of tracks will be needed alongside the existing line from Carajas to the port of Sao Luis. Minerconsult Engenharia Limitada (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Hatch (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are performing engineering services for this project. Construction is expected to start by early 2009 once the environmental license is granted, which is expected to happen by the end of the year. Serra Sul is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2011, with production starting by early 2012. The planned investment for Serra Sul is $10.1 billion with planned expenses for 2008 of $145 million.

Vale describes this project as the largest greenfield project in the history of the company and the largest iron ore project in the world. Serra Sul is part of the company's $59 billion investment program for the next five years. The program involves more than 30 projects in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Mozambique, New Caledonia, Oman and Peru. Investments in 2008 will total $11 billion, including $8 billion in Brazil, amounting to 73% of Vale's 2008 investment budget. For details, see related March 24, 2008 article - Brazil's Vale to Invest $11 Billion in 2008 to Increase Production.

View Plant Profile - 1035620
View Project Report - 67000816 67000819

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.