Iron ore price, page-11258

Vale’s quarterly report is out. Looks like production is being impacted to the tune of 92.8mtpa. This includes 30mt at Brucutu, which is now no guarantee of getting back online.



Rupture of Brumadinho Dam I

In the early afternoon of January 25th, 2019, there was a rupture of the Dam I in the Córrego do Feijão Mine in Brumadinho (MG) and, since then, Vale has been making every effort to meet the needs of those affected and to mitigate damages.
Since the first days following the rupture of the Dam I, Vale’s initiatives have had four main purposes: (i) assistance to the affected people and recovery of the area affected by the rupture of the Dam I; (ii) determination of the causes of the rupture of the Dam I; (iii) ensure the safety of our existing upstream structures and of the communities nearby; and (iv) acceleration of the decommissioning or de-characterization process of our remaining upstream dams.
We will provide extensive details about all those initiatives in the “Report from Administration” that will be published on March 27th, 2019.

Following the Brumadinho dam rupture, Vale ́s iron ore fines annualized production was impacted by the equivalent of about 92.8 Mtpy:
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40 Mtpy from Feijão, Vargem Grande and Fábrica complexes, as a result of the following events: (i) on February 4th, 2019 (and again on February 20th, 2019), Vale disclosed its intention to advance the decommissioning process of all upstream dams; (ii) on February 18th, 2019, Brazil’s National Mining Agency (“ANM” – Agência Nacional de Mineração) published the new Resolution No 4 recommending higher dam safety parameters; (iii) on February 20th, 2019, Vale confirmed that Vargem Grande, Grupo and Forquilha I, II and III tailings dams safety parameters could be potentially lower than what the new resolution recommended; and (iv) on February 20th, 2019, ANM promoted inspections to the sites and determined the suspension of activities at the entire Vargem Grande Complex and Fábrica mine; as informed in the press release “Clarification on the Vargem Grande, Grupo and Forquilha I, II and III dams”, dated March 1st, 2019.

• 30 Mtpy from Brucutu mine, following the decision held by the Court of the Comarca of Santa Barbara, within the scope of the public civil action no 5000153-77.2019.8.13.0572, filed by the Public Prosecution Office of the State of Minas Gerais (“MPMG”, as informed in the press release “Vale reports on Public Civil Actions”, dated March 25th, 2019.

• 12.8 Mtpy from Timbopeba mine, following the decision held by the 2nd Civil Court of the Comarca of Ouro Preto, within the scope of the public civil action n° 5000435- 60.2019.8.13.0461, filed by the MPMG, as informed in the press release “Vale on the Timbopeba mine operations”, dated March 15th, 2019.

• 10 Mtpy from Alegria mine, following Vale’s decision to temporarily suspend on a preventive basis the Alegria mine operation, as informed in the press release “Vale informs on operation of the Alegria mine”, dated March 20th, 2019.