Vale (NYSE: VALE) is keeping output guidance after resuming operations at the Salobo 3 copper processing plant in Pará state, Brazil one month after a fire.
The company halted work on June 16 when a fire occurred on one of the plant’s conveyor belts.
The copper production forecast for this year remains at 320,000 to 355,000 tonnes, it said.
Salobo reached a capacity of 32 million tonnes a year in 2023 following the completion of a throughput test for the Salobo expansion project’s first stage.
Expansion project
The $1.1 billion expansion plan, started in 2019, is to increase the mine’s annual capacity to 36 million tonnes by this year’s final quarter.
At around 1,800 sq. km, 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.
Be the first to comment on "Vale restarts Salobo 3 copper plant Brazil after fire"