Brazilian miner and iron ore producer Vale said this week in a presentation to investors that it plans to increase iron ore capacity from 318 million mt/year currently to 450 million mt.
Vale did not provide an exact timeline to achieve such a production target. Instead, it said it would create “capacity buffers” to reach the target in the “future.”
The company said the future capacity would also offer higher Fe content iron ore. Vale’s average iron ore product today reaches about 63.5 Fe content. In the future, Vale plans to increase such a Fe content to 64 percent.
Vale also updated the status of a filtering plant it is building at its Brucutu site. The company said the filtering plant should startup in 2022. The project is 26 percent complete.