Iron ore output at Anglo American in Brazil remains halted, following an incident at a slurry pipeline early this week, a spokeswoman for the company told SteelOrbis on Friday. The spokeswoman said only iron ore production was affected.
“Iron ore sales remain as we have stocks of the product,” she said.
The company has some 700,000 mt of inventory, which the company said can supply up to four ships.
The spokeswoman said restart of production in Brazil remains uncertain, however, the company expects to fix the broken pipeline by Sunday, when it will perform tests to ensure the equipment’s safe for use. Anglo said the restart of production may be subject to the scrutiny of environment authorities.
As of Friday, Anglo American was not officially prevented from resuming operations, despite a request from public prosecutors to investigate the incident. Anglo American didn’t immediately explain for how many months it can supply iron ore to existing clients with the current inventory level.
Brazilian environment authority IBAMA has requested Anglo American further details about the incident.