Companhia Vale do Paramirim (CVP) announced that iron ore produced at its Morro do Pedreiro open pit mine, in the southeastern state of Bahia, has achieved a 67 percent iron contents after concentration, according to tests developed in metallurgical lab.
According to CVP, the tests unveiled a product that can be traded as a pellet feed of premium category, with wide utilization in the steel industry.
Recent studies developed in Brazil have indicated that pellet feed fines can be used not only in the production of pellets, but also as a direct charge in blast furnaces, provided that it does not exceed the ratio of 25 percent of the sinter charge.
João Cavalcanti, president of CVP, has commented that the ore is very similar to the ore produced by Kiruna, in Sweden, from an underground mine that has served European producers for more than a century.
Cavalcanti added that the region where the mine is located is served by state and federal roads and by the FCA and FIOL railroads, still under construction, which could deliver the ore to ports of Ilhéus and Maragogipe, both in Bahia state.