Brazilian miner and iron ore producer Vale said at an industry event that it is mulling expanding its S11D iron ore mine, in the Brazilian state of Para, to feed China’s demand for the commodity.
A media report by Reuters noted China has increased purchases of higher quality iron ore. “Given … quality trends (that are) favorable to us, we are studying to increase the project, but there are no numbers yet,” Peter Poppinga, Vale’s executive director, was quoted as saying.
Poppinga estimated iron ore production at the S11D mine could reach as much as 90 million mt by 2019, from 60 million mt this year. Vale said recently it aims to keep production levels at about 400 million mt/year to replace low-quality iron ore for higher grade materials. “We are not after market share, we are after value and not after volume,” the Vale executive said.