Vale’s copper ambition is to produce 1 million tons a year

Vale SA’s base metals unit wants to eventually produce 1 million tons of copper by developing existing assets, exceeding an output target for 2035.

Major mining firms such as Anglo American Plc and Rio Tinto Group are racing to increase production of the metal through acquisitions. Vale Base Metals is focused on deposits it already owns in Brazil to join the ranks of the world’s largest copper suppliers.

“These assets have been talked about for decades,” Vale Base Metals chief executive officer Shaun Usmar said in an interview last week at a mining industry gathering in Riyadh. “They just haven’t been unlocked.”

While the subsidiary of the Brazilian iron ore giant has a target to approximately double annual copper production to 700,000 tons by 2035, the CEO said he’s “increasingly confident we’ve got an organic pipeline to go well beyond that.” The ambition is “to become a one million ton a year producer,” according to Usmar.

The only miners whose copper output exceeded 1 million tons in 2024 were Freeport-McMoRan Inc, BHP Group, Codelco and Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd.

Copper is among the most coveted metals for mining executives who are anticipating significant growth in consumption driven by electrification and the wider energy transition. Prices have hit repeated records since late last year amid concerns that supply will lag demand.

Toronto-based Vale Base Metals’ other main product is nickel, which is mined at operations in Brazil, Canada and Indonesia.

Vale said last month that its base metals unit is also considering a joint copper project with Glencore Plc in Canada. It could cost as much as $2 billion to develop their neighboring properties in the Sudbury Basin, in a venture that would produce about 42,000 tons of copper a year, Vale said.

(By William Clowes)