[Ferro-Alloys.com] Vale S.A (“Vale”) iron ore fines production and sales had a significant increase in 3Q19, as a result of the continuous progress in the resumption of operations in the Southern and Southeastern Systems and also due to the strong operational performance and shipments normalization in the Northern System. 

 

Iron ore fines production reached 86.7 Mt in 3Q19, 35.4% higher than in 2Q19 and 17.4% lower than in 3Q18, mainly as a result of the resumption of Brucutu operations in June and the improvement in operational performance in the Northern System, which was impacted by unusual weather-related conditions in 2Q19.

 

Vale expects to resume the remaining production of approximately 50 Mt by 2021, as several milestones were achieved and others are ongoing, including the approval of trigger tests on the mines to resume dry processing operations and the authorization of trigger tests at the TFA Rail Terminal (Terminal Ferroviário de Andaime), an important step toward debottlenecking the Vargem Grande Complex logistics.

 

For 2020, Vale expects to produce an additional ~30 Mt from the halted operations related to the Brumadinho tragedy, with 7 Mt coming from the resumption of the dry processing operations at the Vargem Grande Complex in 2019 and the remaining from Fábrica, Timbopeba dry processing operations and others. 

 

For 2021, Vale expects to add the remaining production of ~25 Mt, mainly coming from wet processing operations at Timbopeba and Vargem Grande Complex.

 

Coal production totaled 2.3 Mt in 3Q19, in line with 2Q19, still affected by lower productivity at the processing plants, caused by a decrease in equipment availability, despite high total movement in the mine front. (Vale)