Vale ( NYSE: VALE ) said Friday it has launched a $485M project to reuse tailings from a dam in Brazil's Pará state to produce high-quality feedstock for iron ore pellet production.
Vale ( VALE ) said the project will produce 5M metric tons/year of feedstock in its initial stages and rise to 10M tons/year in a few years.
Performance and capacity tests should last until the end of June, when production would begin on a continuous basis.
The company said electric dredges at the Gelado tailings dam at its Carajás mine complex will extract tailings materials deposited there over three decades, which would undergo a magnetic process to concentrate the iron ore present in the sludge.
Vale ( VALE ) is "well positioned to benefit from the shortage in structural metal supply compared to the rising trend in battery materials production," Oakoff Investments writes in an analysis published on Seeking Alpha .
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Vale OK's $485M project to reuse tailings to lift iron ore pellet production