Brazilian pellet producer Samarco, a 50/50 JV between Vale and BHP Billiton, has encountered further difficulties regarding its forecasted 2017 restart, due primarily to delays in obtaining pending documents.
The company’s CEO, Roberto Carvalho, told Reuters it is running out of time to get all needed documents in order resume output this year.
“An end-2017 restart is getting difficult. If everything goes well from now on, we could be able [to resume operations this year], but we can’t guarantee we will, because it doesn’t depend on us. Every day that passes things it gets a bit more difficult,” he said.
Samarco is depending on pending licensing documents from the Minas Gerais state environment agency, Semad, and from the city of Santa Barbara, which is yet to issue a compliance letter.
The city of Santa Barbara is expected to release a decision June 6 on whether Samarco could resume collecting water from the city, an important step for the pending compliance letter, which could then be used by Samarco to request its operating license. Once the operating license is granted, it can resume operations.
Samarco has repeatedly changed its forecast on whether and when it could resume pellet production. Recently, the company said the pending compliance letter from the city of Santa Barbara would likely delay its H2 restart forecast.