Brazilian miner and iron ore producer Vale said it is investing BRL 11 billion ($2.8 billion) in a safer iron ore processing, which doesn’t require iron ore waste or dams.
Vale said it plans to change its iron ore processing to a dry system. It would reach 70 percent of the company’s entire iron ore operations by 2023, from 60 percent currently. Brumadinho’s iron ore dams used an upstream technology.
In Minas Gerais state, where both the Brumadinho and the Mariana incidents took place, killing at least 228 people, Vale’s dry iron ore processing system reached 30 percent of its operations in 2018.
Vale is also considering using a technology from New Steel, which the miner acquired for $500 million in December 2018, which uses a dry magnetic iron ore processing solution.
However, such a technology is still on an industrial development phase and is not ready for large scale use, Vale said.