Brazilian miner Vale has announced that Samarco Mineração received the corrective operation license (LOC) for its operating activities in the Germano Complex, located in the state of Minas Gerais. Following this authorization, Samarco has now obtained all environmental licenses required to restart its operations, an important step that shows its commitment to restarting its operations in a safe and sustainable manner, Vale stated.
Samarco currently expects to restart its operations around the end of 2020. Until that time, it will continue its operational readiness activities, which include equipment maintenance.
The company expects to be able to restart operations through one concentrator and produce approximately 7-8 million mt per year, following the installation of the filtration technology. It is currently expected that a second concentrator could be restarted in approximately six years to reach a range of production of approximately 14-16 million mt per year, and the restart of the third concentrator could happen in around 10 years after the issuance of the LOC, when Samarco expects to reach annual production volume in a range of approximately 22-24 million mt per year.