Vale to build iron ore processing plant focused on tailings

Brazilian miner Vale will begin building this year a processing plant in southeastern Minas Gerais state for tailings and waste rock, the company said on Friday.

The plant, which will have capacity to produce up to 2 million metric tons of iron ore annually and is expected to begin operations next year, is part of Vale’s goal to reuse previously discarded raw materials.

Reuters first reported the plan.

Vale can commercially extract iron ore from tailings and waste rock due to technological advances that transformed a process previously considered uneconomical. The plant is part of a project to dismantle a tailings dam in Minas Gerais.

Vale, one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, more than doubled its production of iron ore derived from waste rock or tailings last year to 26.3 million tons, with around 80% of that volume produced in Minas Gerais.

By 2030, the company expects that about 10% of its annual iron ore output will come from reused materials.

(By Marta Nogueira and Fernando Cardoso; Editing by Rod Nickel)