Iron ore price, page-24651

@garrye Like Bolsonaro and Trump, they have tried to downplay the impact of the virus, working around it, bringing in workers from other areas, using rapid testing as a weapon, then sending people to home isolation. Those strategies have allowed them to ramp up activity at SIID and in the northern system in general, but they will prolong the duration of the pandemic in Para. Real numbers are much higher than reported, as well. I wonder that they have not suffered more issues at the ports, but last time I checked, port activity at PdM was quite full on.

With 88.7Mt for the quarter, they were producing close to 1Mt per day, with much of that coming from S11D, at 24.4Mt. In fact, 56.9Mt of the Q3 production came from the Northern System in the Carajas Mountains in Para. But they will need to out do that run rate to hit the low end of their annual target of 310Mt.

Is it earlier than I personally expected? Yes. Is ramping up in the midst of a pandemic, and in a hotspot, unusual behaviour? Not for Vale, it seems.

Is it sustainable? It is frought with risk,imv, and it is unconscionable behaviour, but Brazil has declared mining an essential activity, and so they can continue, but so too will the pandemic in Brazil. It's a gamble, of sorts. A trade-off.


S11D, in the Carajas Mountains