"While the persistence of the COVID crisis, especially in Europe, calls for careful forecasts for our business ahead, we see the rare earth market recovering very quickly," the world's largest rare earths producer outside China said.
Vale’s iron ore output totaled 68 million tonnes in 1Q21, 14.2% higher than in 1Q20, but down 5.5% compared to the 72 million tonnes average analyst estimate.
Tropical cyclone Seroja impacted operations in April while labour resource availability and above average wet weather in the mines disrupted maintenance.