Vale loads first iron-ore shipment from giant new S11D mine

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – The world’s biggest iron-ore miner, Vale, has loaded the first ore from its largest-ever mine, the S11D project, in Canaã dos Carajás, south-east of Pará, at the Ponta de Madeira docks.

On Friday, Vale loaded its first 26 500 t of commercial ore produced at the $14.4-billion mine in Brazil, divided into three vessels with capacities ranging between 73 000 t and 380 000 t.

Vale noted that the surplus vessel capacity was filled with high-grade iron-ore fines from other mines in its northern operations – Carajás IOCJ. Carajás IOCJ, with 65% of iron content, represents 40% of Vale's sales. Until 2020, Carajás IOCJ will account for more than half of Vale’s output.

The high quality of the ore extracted from the new mine will give the company flexibility to blend it in ports in Malaysia, China and Oman, with product produced in the so-called south and south-east systems, in Minas Gerais, improving the pricing of the final product, as well as extending the life of the mines in that state.

S11D is expected to reach full output by 2018, enough to fill 225 Valemax ships – the largest cargo carriers in the world. The S11D mine will boost Vale’s current 109-million-ton capacity to 230-million tons a year, while having a smaller environmental footprint than existing operations.

The S11D project does not include tailings dams owing to a combination of the high-quality ore and state-of-the-art beneficiation technology. The beneficiation process does not need water, making environment-friendly dry-stacking tailings disposal methods feasible.

The project has adopted other technologies such as the implementation of a truckless system, in which ore is mined without the need to use "off-road trucks", which reduces greenhouse-gas emissions and particulate matter.