Vale to eliminate water use in Carajas iron ore processing by 2027

Mining giant Vale aims to stop using water to process iron ore at its Carajas mines by 2027, executives said on Tuesday, while expanding pellet feed production through the reuse of mine waste at the complex in northern Brazil.

Ending the use of water in iron ore beneficiation would eliminate generation of waste known as tailings in the production process, therefore removing the need for new dams to be built to store them and reducing costs, Vale said.

Carajas, in Brazil’s Para state, is the world’s largest iron ore open-pit mining complex and part of its operations have already adopted dry processing, with 90% of Vale’s so-called Northern System no longer using water in beneficiation.

“By end-2027 they will be 100% dry. The Northern System will be 100% on natural moisture,” Vale director Gildiney Sales said, referring to an area that produced 177.5 million metric tons of iron ore in 2024, or more than half of Vale’s total output.

The company also said that it expects its Gelado project, which makes high-quality pellet feed by reusing tailings stored since 1985 at the Gelado dam, to double production in 2026 when compared to this year.

Gelado’s output is set to reach around 5 million tons next year and 6 million tons in 2027, according to the firm, which plans to have 10% of its total annual production coming from “circular mining” by 2030.

(By Roberto Samora; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Chizu Nomiyama)