Carlos Brazil
Vale’s main development projects are located in Pará. In that state investments total US$20 billion, however there are also expressive investments in Minas Gerais, Ceará and abroad.
The ongoing projects in Pará are: new mining and processing compound in Carajás Serra Sul, known as S11D, together with a railway extension (known as North Logistic Qualification – CLN S11D) to serve the new production pool in the state, with total investments forecast at US$8.809 billion and US$11.582 billion, respectively, in addition to a new iron ore mining and processing plant, Serra Leste, US$478 million investments.
In Minas Gerais, highlight goes to the projects being developed in the municipality of Itabira, Vale’s homeland: Vargem Grande Itabiritos plant to beneficiate low-content itabirite ore worth US$1.91 billion total; installation of ore treatment plant Conceição Itabiritos II, worth US$1.189 billion investments; and Cauê Itabiritos, an adaptation of a processing itabirite plant worth US$1.504 billion..
In the state of Ceará Vale is building, in a partnership with South-Korean companies Dongkuk and Posco, the company Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém (CSP), located at the Port Industrial Compound of Pecém, in the municipality of São Gonçalo do Amarante. In total, the investments forecast will add up to US$4.86 billion, out of which US$2.570 billion will be invested by Vale, and its production capacity will reach 3 million t/year steel plates.
Vale’s other significant investments are being made in its facilities abroad. In spite of its signaling to the market that it intends to decrease its participation in development projects in
Mozambique (Africa), the company continues to make expenses in large projects in that country, such as the Natala Logistic Corridor , including a railway, totaling US$4.444 billion investments and the coal mine Moatize II, US$2.068 billion to be spent in the plant.
Finally in Malaysia (Southern Asia), the Brazilian mining company is completing the construction of the maritime terminal and ore distribution center Teluk Rubiah, with total investments of US$1.371 billion.
S11D has 52% construction complete
According to Vale, the project that gathers the new facilities of Serra Sul S11D and those of CLN S11D is a significantly large undertaking that will stand for the biggest private investment in Brazil in this decade, totaling US$19.671 billion.
The project, whose construction is already 52% complete, has characteristics that make it stand out among the other Vale’s undertakings. Related to the placer process, traditional off-road trucks, usually found at mining sites, will be replaced with a system composed of backhoes, conveyor belts and mobile rock crushers, known as “truckless”. So, ore will be carried through a system of 9 km long belts from the extraction site to the ore processing plant. Without the trucks, Vale will cut 77% of its diesel consumption, thus significantly reducing the greenhouse-effect emissions – something essential because the mine is located in the Amazon Forest.
The project is also innovative because it uses in the construction industrial structures
manufactured and installed in modules, a concept already used in the oil industry to build offshore platforms. So, there have been substantial gains in the term of delivery as a result of such approach.
Comparatively, Vale’s total production in 2013 was 299,795 million t of iron ore. Just S11D
is expected to produce 90 million t/year when it reaches its full capacity. The project should create 3,600 permanent jobs in the region plus 9,800 indirect ones in the State of Pará.
Balance sheets
According to 2014’s second semester balance sheets, Vale had R$22.478 billion revenues from April to June this year. Net worth was R$2.187 billion in that period, and it added up to R$9.096 billion in the first six months this year. As to investments in construction, the company has spent US$3.398 billion in the first semester, equivalent to R$7.482 billion by the end of June.
“We are quite happy with the company’s performance, and that is the way we want to go on. More and more competitive”, stated Luciano Siani, Finance and Relation with Investors Executive Director when the mining company 2014’s second quarter balance sheets were divulged.
Fonte: Revista O Empreiteiro
