Brazilian iron ore pellet producer Samarco has filed a request for a corrective operating license at a Minas Gerais state environmental authority in order to resume operations.
Samarco filed early in September for environmental impact studies at the Minas Gerais state authority, Semad. Filing for environmental impact studies is the first step for getting the licensing process started. Semad said a technical body will analyze the documents provided by Samarco.
Samarco did not provide a timeline for resuming operations; previous attempts failed after the company could not obtain proper documents from the city of Santa Barbara. Samarco’s restart also depends on a separate license for using a pit to store its iron ore waste.