Anglo American said this week it has resumed operations at its Minas-Rio iron ore project in Brazil following a slurry pipeline burst on March 12 in the city of Santo Antonio do Grama in Minas Gerais state.
The company, which told SteelOrbis on March 16 it had 700,000 mt of iron ore inventory to supply clients, was allowed to resume operations on Tuesday, the company said in a statement.
Brazilian environment authority IBAMA allowed Anglo American to resume production after reviewing documents provided by the company, which showed some of the company’s actions to solve and mitigate the incident.
On March 20, a Brazilian court seized about BRL 10 million ($3 million) in assets of Anglo American in Brazil, following the request of state prosecutors at the Ministerio Publico Federal in Minas Gerais (MPF-MG).
Anglo develops the Minas-Rio iron ore project. It comprises an open pit mine, a beneficiation plant producing high-grade pellet feed, and a 529kmlong (328milelong) pellet feed-transporting slurry pipeline connecting different cities in the states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.
The company is now at phase 3 of the project, which consist on obtaining the operating license required for the operation to access the full range of run-of-mine ore grades and target the operation’s nameplate capacity of 26.5 million mt of the commodity per year.
The step 3 installing license was granted in January this year following delays in 2017, and will allow the company to advance step 3 construction works.
Anglo expects a Provisional Operational Authorization (APO) to be issued before November 2018 and the full step 3 operational license by mid-2019.