Production falls at under-fire Brazilian miner Vale after a burst dam killed hundreds
Production at under-fire Vale fell 28 per cent quarter-on-quarter, the company said today after one of its dams burst in January, killing hundreds.
The Brazilian miner said production of iron ore dropped 11 per cent year-on-year, but more than a quarter since the last part of 2019, to 72.9m tonnes.
Read more: Vale stops operations at nine more dams after auditors' report
Meanwhile iron pellet production reached 12.2m tonnes, down 23 per cent quarter-on-quarter, and five per cent since the first three months of last year.
The firm reiterated its iron ore and pellets guidance of between 307m and 332m tonnes for the full year, but said it is expected to end up at the bottom half of the range.
In January one of company’s tailings dams, which store heavy waste from mining, burst, leaving over 300 people either dead or missing.
In the wake of the disaster, which engulfed parts of the city of Brumadinho in Minas Gerais state, Vale was forced to close several mines.
On 4 February, over a week after the accident, a court closed its Brucutu ordered Vale to sop operations at its Brucutu mine. The order against the 30m-tonne mine was lifted on 17 April, but prosecutors appealed and operations were suspended again on Monday.
However, the miner said pellet and ore sales had taken twice the blow from seasonal fluctuations in the weather than it had from Brumadinho, which lost it 7m tonnes, compared to the last quarter of 2018.
Read more: Prosecutors freeze Vale assets to pay back evacuated locals
Meanwhile, new procedures at Chinese ports also impacted sales, taking 6m tonnes off the quarter’s results.
Shares fell around one per cent to 49.17 Brazilian reals this afternoon.