Brazilian miner and iron ore producer Vale now sees reduced risks for halting operations, despite the pandemic, a top executive told participants of a live conference promoted by media outlet Valor.
Vale’s executive director of finance and investor relations, Luciano Siani, said such risks are now smaller when actually compared to months ago.
Siani attributed the diminished risks to recent Brazilian government decisions, which included the mining sector as an “essential sector.”
Despite Covid-19, the executive said Vale might provisionally dismiss workers included in the groups at risk or those who have been in touch with someone else with Covid-19.
However, even if reducing the workforce impacts production, Vale would more likely operate with reduced capacity in such a case, instead of just halting activities, Siani said.
Siani said that the industrial sector can easily adapt to social distancing rules in small teams, as such activities don’t require agglomerations.
The Vale executive said Vale has compensated 7,000 people for the Brumadinho dam disaster, in addition to other 106,000 that receive emergency aid. Siani said the company spent so far BRL 3.6 billion with such measures ($618.6 million).