Following a fire that interrupted its activities a month ago, Vale has managed to resume operations at its Salobo 3 copper processing plant, located in the state of Pará, Brazil. The company has confirmed that it is maintaining its copper production expectations for the current year, with estimates ranging from 320,000 to 355,000 tons.
Challenges and expansion: The Salobo 3 copper plant’s path to 2024
The incident that precipitated the operational pause originated on one of the facility’s conveyor belts, specifically on June 16. This situation led to the temporary suspension of work at the plant, although it did not alter the company’s long-term production projections.
Last year, the plant reached an annual operating capacity of 32 million tons, the culmination of a performance testing phase as part of an expansion project. Vale has announced an ambitious expansion plan valued at US$1.1 billion, starting in 2019, which seeks to increase the mine’s annual production capacity to 36 million tons by the last quarter of this year.
The Carajás region, which covers about 1,800 km², is not only the second largest property in the country, but also the second largest in the world. Vales second largest property, but is also renowned for its vast deposits of iron oxide, copper and gold. Salobo stands out as a prominent example within this area, being the mine with the largest copper deposit discovered to date in Brazil, containing more than one billion tons of the precious red metal.
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Source: northernminer
Photo: Shutterstock
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