Vale resumes operations at Salobo 3 after fire

Vale (NYSE: VALE) resumed operations at the Salobo 3 processing plant, located in Pará, one month after a fire.

The operation had been halted on June 16 due to a fire on one of the plant’s conveyor belts.

With the normalization of operations at Salobo 3, Vale confirms that the copper production guidance for 2024 remains unchanged, estimating production of 320 to 355 thousand tonnes (kt).

Salobo reached a capacity of 32 million tonnes per annum in 2023, following the successful completion of the throughput test for the first phase of the Salobo III expansion project.

The $1.1 billion expansion plan, launched in 2019, is set to increase the mine’s throughput capacity to 36 million tonnes per year by the final quarter of 2024.

At around 1,800 km², Carajás is Vale’s second largest land holding in a region known for iron oxide copper-gold deposits, of which Salobo is a prime example. The mine, the largest copper deposit ever discovered in Brazil, is estimated to hold more than 1 billion tonnes of the red metal.