Archive | Vale

UPDATE 1-Vale notches record Q2 iron ore, pellet output despite trucker strike (Reuters U.K.  – July 16, 2018)

July 16, 2018 in International Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Latin America Mining, Vale

https://uk.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 16 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale SA achieved record iron ore and pellet production for a second quarter despite a nationwide trucker strike that paralyzed Latin America’s largest economy in May, the miner said in a filing on Monday.

Vale, the world’s top iron ore producer, said iron ore output reached 96.755 million tonnes in the period while pellet output hit 12.838 million tonnes, despite the strike over rising diesel prices.

The pickup came after a slip in iron ore production in the first quarter due to heavy rains, and as a campaign in China to cut pollution boosts demand for Vale’s top-quality iron ore. Continue Reading →

Biosolids rejuvenate mining wasteland: Reclamation project at Vale tailings ponds in Copper Cliff wins award – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – July 13, 2018)

July 13, 2018 in Biomining and Bioremediation, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Green Mining, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

In the decades-long efforts to regreen the Sudbury basin, Vale is reporting its Copper Cliff Tailings Project using biosolids is continuing to be successful. So successful, the groundbreaking project recently won an award and plans are in the works to apply it to other reclamation projects.

The Copper Cliff Tailings Project, a joint effort by Vale and Terrapure’s solutions division, Terratec Environmental, has been running for about five years and continues to show positive and even surprising results.

“We are doing this for two reasons: dust control and covering the area with vegetation for long-term closure plans,” said Glen Watson, superintendent of environment decommissioning and reclamation for Vale Canada. It recently won the Water Environment Association of Ontario’s 2018 Exemplary Biosolids Management Award. Continue Reading →

Vale nets enviro award – by Staff (Sudbury Star – July 9, 2018)

July 9, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Green Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vale’s Sudbury Biodiversity Program has been been recognized nationally. Vale received the national Towards Sustainable Mining Environmental Excellence Award from the Mining Association of Canada at an awards gala during the 2018 CIM Convention earlier this year.

“We are proud to be acknowledged for Vale’s biodiversity program in Sudbury,” said Lisa Lanteigne, environment manager for Vale’s Ontario Operations. “The program has been successful because of a sustained commitment to community collaboration and an innovative approach to environmental stewardship. The program exemplifies one of our core company values — Prize Our Planet.”

Vale’s biodiversity work in Sudbury focuses on regreening and reclamation efforts, transforming historically stressed lands and waterways back to their natural states after more than a century of mining activities. To improve biodiversity within the community, Vale undertakes a number of activities, including: Continue Reading →

Japan’s Mitsui may raise its stake in Vale: executive – by Yuka Obayashi and Yoshiyasu Shida (Reuters U.S. – July 6, 2018)

July 6, 2018 in Asia Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Latin America Mining, Vale

https://www.reuters.com/

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co (8031.T) may boost its stake in Brazil’s Vale SA (VALE3.SA) if other shareholders sell part of their holdings, a senior executive said, giving it greater influence over the iron ore giant’s management.

Several Brazilian pension funds and BNDESPar, the investment arm of state development bank BNDES have been considering the sale of part of their stakes in Vale, equating to about 3 percent of the miner’s shares in total and worth up to 8 billion reais ($2 billion).

Buying an additional stake was “an option”, Yukio Takebe, Mitsui’s senior executive managing officer who oversees the energy and metals business, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Continue Reading →

$23M program aims to create skills, on-the-job training for Indigenous peoples (CBC News Newfoundland-Labrador – June 26, 2018)

June 28, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Nickel, Vale

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Voisey’s Bay mine expansion creates hundreds of new job opportunities

Newfoundland and Labrador is teaming up with the federal government on a new $23.6 million-program designed to get more Indigenous people working at the Vale mine in Voisey’s Bay.

On Tuesday, officials from the Nunatsiavut government, Innu Nation, NunatuKavut, Vale, and the federal and provincial governments came together with the College of the North Atlantic (CNA) in Happy Valley-Goose Bay to announce the project.

It’s being led by the Labrador Aboriginal Training Partnership (LATP), and will help train workers for the mine, by giving them hands-on training experiences and skills development. Continue Reading →

Samarco could reach partial deal with Brazil prosecutors on Monday – by Marta Nogueira (Reuters U.S. – June 25, 2018)

June 25, 2018 in BHP Billiton, International Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Latin America Mining, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines, Vale

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Samarco, a joint venture between Brazilian miner Vale and Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, could reach the second phase of a settlement with Brazilian prosecutors over a 2015 environmental disaster on Monday, a federal prosecutor said.

The mining disaster, Brazil’s worst on record, was caused by the bursting of a tailings dam and killed 19 people. Samarco’s operations have been suspended since then.

“This deal we are negotiating is aimed at perfecting the governance system of (a prior agreement), creating reports and damage assessments and empowering those affected,” Brazil’s federal prosecutor for the case José Adércio Sampaio said, without offering details. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Terrapure’s Terratec division awarded for innovative mine reclamation program with Vale Canada

June 25, 2018 in Mining Environmental, Water Shortage and Land Reclamation/Revegetation Issues, Sudbury Basin, Vale

Canada’s leading environmental service provider solves a municipal problem and a mining problem with one, sustainable, cost-saving approach.

BURLINGTON, ONT., June 25, 2018 – Terratec Environmental, a division of leading environmental solutions provider Terrapure, has established a new, sustainable option for managing biosolids during winter months, when farmland application is prohibited and storage is complicated.

Instead of disposing of a nutrient-rich resource through incineration or landfill, Terratec developed a program to apply biosolids to mine-impacted land for reclamation and revegetation. Acknowledging this significant contribution to the field, the Water Environment Association of Ontario (WEAO) presented Terrapure and Vale with the 2018 Exemplary Biosolids Management Award.

“The program is the first of its kind in Ontario, so we’re excited to see that it’s gaining momentum; the mining industry is now identifying biosolids as a key strategy in mine closure scenarios,” said Jeff Newman, Director of Business Development at Terratec. “This approach is a real win-win. Municipalities get an off-season biosolids management alternative, and mining companies get an effective tailings cover system.” Continue Reading →

Mineral deposits at Voisey’s Bay ‘exquisite,’ says geology professor – by Terry Roberts (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador -June 19, 2018)

June 20, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Copper, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Nickel, Vale

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Experts call Labrador operation ‘perfect battery metals mine’

Questions about the fate of mining operations at Voisey’s Bay over the past year have been replaced by unbridled hope and enthusiasm.

A green light for a multibillion-dollar underground expansion, a lifespan extended by many years, a workforce that will nearly double, and an operation poised to capitalize on what many expect will be an explosion in the demand for electric vehicles in the coming years.

You only need to pick up a metallurgical core sample from Voisey’s Bay to understand what all the hype is about, and you don’t need to be a geologist to know you’re holding something unique. Continue Reading →

One of Sudbury’s ‘unique’ places disappearing – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 15, 2018)

June 15, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

As Vale erects a pair of new, efficient stacks on its Copper Cliff smelter, it is simultaneously tearing down a huge, abandoned building near Fielding Road that, in its day, also helped to reduce emissions.

The structure housed a few peregrine falcons for a spell, too, but those birds — since relocated to an adjacent chimney — won’t be affected, Vale promises, except in the sense that they will have “front-row seats of the dramatic events from their nearby nesting boxes.”

The roaster kiln building, quite prominent as you drive between Copper Cliff and Lively, “operated from 1955 to the late 1980s as part of Inco’s iron ore recovery plant,” said Danica Pagnutti, with corporate and Indigenous affairs at Vale, in an email to The Star. Decommissioning of the structure is now underway and one corner has already been removed, with the remainder to be taken down gradually over the next few months. Continue Reading →

Wheaton Precious Metals CEO says company ‘taking a gamble and investing in cobalt’ – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 13, 2018)

June 13, 2018 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Nickel, Vale

http://business.financialpost.com/

A deal with Vale over cobalt marks the first time that Wheaton Precious Metals has moved outside the gold and silver space

Cobalt has given the Voisey’s Bay mine — one of the world’s largest nickel deposits — in Newfoundland and Labrador a new lease on life this week in yet another sign of the growing influence that the electric vehicle industry already exerts on global supply chains.

Brazilian giant Vale SA on Monday announced it will sell most of the mine’s future cobalt production for US$690 million to finance a long-delayed $1.7-billion expansion, which will add an underground component to the mine and extend its life by 15 years.

Cobalt, long considered an industrial metal used as an alloy in jet engines and natural gas turbines, is increasingly in demand for use in lithium-ion batteries. Forecasts that the electric vehicle industry is set for major growth over the next decade have increased cobalt prices by more than fourfold during the past two years to US$80,000 per ton. Continue Reading →

Vale in deal with two Canadian companies to sell cobalt – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – June 11, 2018)

June 12, 2018 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Junior Exploration Sector, Vale

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale on Monday unveiled a $690 million financing to expand a Canadian nickel mine, agreeing to sell unmined cobalt from Voisey’s Bay as a booming electric vehicle market propels demand for the critical battery ingredient.

Vale said it would sell cobalt mined after 2021 as a by-product from the mine in Canada’s northern Labrador region to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp and Cobalt 27 Capital Corp in a so-called stream financing deal.

The transaction is the world’s biggest cobalt stream to date, a form of alternative financing that allows an investor to make an upfront payment in exchange for future production at a discounted price. Continue Reading →

‘Momentous’: Vale gives green light to Voisey’s Bay mine expansion – by Holly McKenzie-Sutter (Globe and Mail – June 12, 2018)

June 12, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Nickel, Vale

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

“More than half of the work force in the remote area accessible
by plane is Inuit or Innu, while more than 80 per cent of
contracts are with Indigenous-owned and operated businesses.”

Brazilian mining company Vale says it will proceed with construction of an underground mine at Voisey’s Bay, N.L., extending operations by at least 15 years and creating 1,700 jobs. Construction is to begin this summer and take about five years.

“A great day for Newfoundland and Labrador and a great day for Vale,” Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball said in St. John’s, N.L. Also on hand for what Ball declared a “momentous” announcement was Vale executive Eduardo Bartolomeo, Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady and former premiers Clyde Wells, Brian Tobin and Roger Grimes.

Once operational, Ball estimates the underground mine will create an additional 1,700 jobs in the mine and at the Long Harbour, N.L., processing plant. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Premier Ball Announces that the Voisey’s Bay Underground Mine Will Proceed with Construction this Summer (Executive Council Natural Resources – June 11, 2018)

June 11, 2018 in Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Nickel, Vale

Today at an event in St. John’s, the Honourable Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, announced that the construction of the Voisey’s Bay underground mine will proceed this summer. Premier Ball was joined at the announcement by the Honourable Siobhan Coady, Minister of Natural Resources, and Eduardo Bartolomeo, Executive Director Base Metals, Vale.

The underground mine will extend the operating life of Voisey’s Bay by at least 15 years and will result in:

  • Close to $2 billion in capital investment by Vale;
  • 16,000 person years of employment during the five-year construction period, peaking at 4,800 in 2020;
  • Once operational, 1,700 in jobs at the underground mine and Long Harbour processing plant;
  • 2,135 person years in indirect and induced employment annually;
  • $370 million per year in labour income; and
  • $1 billion in economic activity annually that will result in $69 million per year in provincial tax revenue.

Continue Reading →

Construction to start this summer on Voisey’s Bay underground mine (St. John’s Telegram – June 11, 2018)

June 11, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining, Nickel, Vale

http://www.thetelegram.com/

Construction of the Voisey’s Bay underground mine will proceed this summer, Premier Dwight Ball announced today (Monday) in St. John’s. Eduardo Bartolomeo, executive director of Base Metals, Vale, called the underground mine the natural evolution of the project.

First ore production from the underground mine is expected no later than April 2021 and will allow the continued operation of the Long Harbour processing plant.

According to government, the underground mine will extend the operating life of Voisey’s Bay by at least 15 years and will result in close to $2 billion in capital investment by Vale. It is expected to provide 16,000 person years of employment during the five-year construction period — peaking at 4,800 in 2020. Continue Reading →

FORECAST: EV nickel demand to surge tenfold by 2025, Vale says – by Millicent Dent (Metal Bulletin.com – May 15, 2018)

June 11, 2018 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canada Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel, Nickel Laterites, Vale

http://www.metalbulletin.com/

Mass production of electric vehicles (EVs) will transform the nickel market, which must evolve from pricing and supply perspectives in order to meet the anticipated surge in demand.

“We’re already preparing [to enter the EV space] but we’re going to preserve optionality until it’s time and we can extract value,” Robert Morris, Vale’s executive vice president of sales and marketing for base metals, told Metal Bulletin.

Nickel prices are not nearly high enough to incentivize more production to come online. “If we want to supply this battery revolution with the appropriate nickel units, prices will have to be substantially higher,” he said, adding that it would likely take a couple of years for that to occur. Continue Reading →